The Bells

Lou stepped up the microphone and recited the whole "Bells" lyric in one take, pouring the words into the wash of the music. To this day he still wonders at their meaning, but the experience was so sublime that "The Bells" remains one of Lou's favorite tracks.

From "Transformer: The Lou Reed Story", by Victor Bockris

    The bells! — ah, the bells! 
    The little silver bells! 
How fairy-like a melody there floats 
        From their throats. — 
        From their merry little throats — 
        From the silver, tinkling throats 
    Of the bells, bells, bells — 
        Of the bells! 

    The bells! — ah, the bells! 
    The heavy iron bells! 
How horrible a monody there floats 
        From their throats — 
        From their deep-toned throats — 
        From their melancholy throats! 
        How I shudder at the notes 
    Of the bells, bells, bells — 
        Of the bells!

This manuscript is assigned as "by Mrs. M. L. Shew" because she suggested the idea to Poe. In the lost "first" manuscript, she apparently wrote the first line of each stanza, which Poe then finished. The entire manuscript is in Poe's hand. It was first printed by John H. Ingram, The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, London: Chandos Classics, 1888 and reprinted by Ingram in his article "Variations in Edgar Poe's Poetry," Bibliophile (London), III, May 1909, pp. 128-136). J. H. Whitty (1911) and Floyd Stovall (1965) both reprint the poem, using Ingram as the source, though Stovall curiously drops the 7th line from the second stanza, making both stanzas 8 lines.