The Bells of the Feast

Ring out, O bells of the feast; cry aloud, and give praise long and full; and let your echo mount from the farthest end of these mountains to the farthest, until the depths of the grottoes and the hollows of the caves resound with it..

Ring out, O church bells, in broken calm or in quickening urgency — your voice is ever sweet and delicious, and your pealing is nothing but the emotion of ancient man, dragging his weakness along and taking shelter in the shadow of the generous God.

Ring out, O bells, at evening, and at night, and at earliest dawn... Join the muezzins who dwell — like you — in the domes, and who call — like you — upon the people to cast their burdens at the feet of the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Mingle your pealing with their grave and majestic chant; perhaps our discordant voices upon the earth may draw together and unite above the mist, and come back to us as coolness and peace.