Ringing In
Every time I hear them, I remember that first morning,
That moment in a narrow street when brightly, without warning,
The bells loosened their tongues to sing and raised their clarion voices
In that wild hymnody of joy at which my heart rejoices,
And now, wherever I may be, whatever is the weather
Or the occasion driving me, those voices joined together
Stop me, and make me raise my eyes while all the bells are ringing,
And search the gladness of the skies where Carillon is singing.
On the Hour
I hear a distant clamoring, that clear and golden hammering,
the calling so enamoring me of this hour of day,
That chorus of the chiming bells change-ringing, as their music swells
until no other parallels the news they swing to say,
‘Til every other sound should cease as swiftly as the bells increase,
work stop, hopes rise, hearts fill with peace; the ringing calls that soon
The echo of its chimes will fall where it sang out from wall to wall
in waves of life over us all to tell us it is noon–
No wonder, in this ringing sphere of tonal loveliness I hear,
I sense a sweetness drawing near and beckoning to me
To join the clangor of the song, to strike at every chime and gong
and bell, that each must sing along and set the midday free–
Ring every bronze and silver note, ring brass and gold, and keep afloat
all of earth’s joy–the antidote to death is in this tune–
Ring happiness, ring love and peace; ring out the hour of sweet release;
ring the refrain of this caprice until another noon!
Bells Rung a Little Prematurely
Bats of old Belvedere flew out and in
Of the belfry Hieronymus tended
‘Til they drove him quite crazy, so is it a sin
That he swung ere the service was ended?
There mightn’t be any reason to connect the hat known as the cloche with the bell for which it’s named, given the resemblance of their shapes. The similarity may end there.
Unless you want to make a silly cheap pun and say that the hat kind of rings a bell for some reason.
More productive, probably, to just work on drawing curves by sketching a figure wearing a cloche and simply exaggerating the resemblance a little bit more by simplifying the shapes to an extreme. Whether it’s quite characteristic of my style of drawing or not, it might be that I tend to like drawing curvy forms just because the arm and hand action that creates them is comfortable and pleasing to me when I draw.
The long and the short of it is that practice may make me better at drawing, but it also makes me happy as an activity in itself and for its own sake, and drawing curved forms feels pleasant and encourages me to draw more. And that, if I’m in the mood to draw curved forms, why then, drawing a cloche hat is a handy way to get into the process.
Shallow, I know. What do you expect from a person who makes cheesy puns in public and draws in a particular style merely because it feels nice!
Art-Colored Glasses 