Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter explained

"Bells For John Whiteside's Daughter" is an elegy by John Crowe Ransom published in 1924.^[1] It was first collected in his 1924 anthology Chills and Fever,^[2] and is now considered his most-anthologized work.^[3] The five stanza poem reflects on the impact that unexpected death has on life by describing the death of a once lively young girl, once loud and energetic, but now silent. The reference to bells alludes to John Donne's "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions", which includes the lines, "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

Notes and References

1. Book: Quinlan, Kieran. John Crowe Ransom's Secular Faith. 1999-03-01. LSU Press. 978-0-8071-2468-0. en.
2. Book: Ransom, John Crowe. Chills and Fever: Poems. 1924. Knopf. en.
3. Book: Haralson, Eric L.. Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. 2014-01-21. Routledge. 978-1-317-76322-2. en.