A PEAL OF BELLS.
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trike the bells wantonly,Tinkle tinkle well;Bring me wine, bring me flowers,Ring the silver bell.All my lamps burn scented oil,Hung on laden orange-trees,Whose shadowed foliage is the foilTo golden lamps and oranges.Heap my golden plates with fruit,Golden fruit, fresh-plucked and ripe;Strike the bells and breathe the pipe;Shut out showers from summer hours;Silence that complaining lute;Shut out thinking, shut out pain,From hours that cannot come again. Strike the bells solemnly,Ding dong deep:My friend is passing to his bed,Fast asleep;There's plaited linen round his head,While foremost go his feet,--His feet that cannot carry him.My feast's a show, my lights are dim;Be still, your music is not sweet,--There is no music more for him:His lights are out, his feast is done;His bowl that sparkled to the brimIs drained, is broken, cannot hold;My blood is chill, his blood is cold;His death is full, and mine begun.
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