An excerpt from The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe

Hear the loud alarum bells -
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now - now to sit, or never,
By the side of the pale - faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear, it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -
Of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
In the clamor and the clanging of the bells!

Read the whole poem here.
There are four parts to this poem by Poe. This is my favorite excerpt; the other two are about jolly jingle bells (woah), happy wedding bells (but you know death will be a part of it somewhere), and death bells tolling (ding, ding!). My heart started to race as I read this section; I just sensed the apprehension of waiting to find out just what WAS the emergency in which the bells were sounding? I love it when he writes:

...Of the bells- Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells-

I can hear his agitation and panic. And madness, let's not forget madness. Love it.
Just in case you didn't know... Edgar Allen Poe's birthday was January 19, 1809 (this, of course, bears a strange coincidence to it being my brother-in-law's birthday-he can do a great, ominous laugh, btw). This is the 200th anniversary of the year of his birth. There are celebrations the whole year through! You know what that means, don't you? That we will celebrate here, on my blog. Oh yeah, I'll wait for you to stop leaping for joy.

Happy Birthday, Poe. Dude, I love your stuff.