century musical idioms. DuBois sees the poem as a dramatic song that is a precursor for Vachel Lindsay. DuBois makes comparisons to jazz music and places the poem in the style of musical and poetic "primativism" which was ahead of its time in the 1840s. F. O. Matthiessen rejected the repetitive sounds employed and musical tone as "a case of onomatopoeia pushed to a point where it would hardly be possible or desirable to go again". Edward H. Davidson, however, praised its use of repetitive sounds: "It has been rightly praised for its experimental and effective onomatopoeia; its theme is probably nothing more profound than the four ages of man". Poe biographer Jeffrey Meyers noted that "The Bells" is often criticized for sounding mechanical and forced. Publication history Poe is believed to have written "The Bells" in May 1848 and submitted it three times to Sartain's Union Magazine, a magazine co-owned by his friend John Sartain, until it was finally accepted. He was paid fifteen dollars for his work, though it was not published until after his death in the November 1849 issue. It was also published in Horace Greeley's the New York Daily Tribune newspaper on the front page of its October 17, 1849 issue as "Poe's Last Poem". Inspiration for the poem is often granted to Marie Louise Shew, a woman who had helped care for Poe's wife Virginia as she lay dying. One day, as Shew was visiting Poe at his cottage in Fordham, New York, Poe needed to write a poem but had no inspiration. Shew allegedly heard ringing bells from afar and playfully suggested to start there, possibly even writing the first line of each stanza. Adaptations Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) composed a choral symphony The Bells, Op. 35, based on a Russian adaptation of the poem by Konstantin Balmont. The symphony follows classical sonata form: first movement, slow movement, scherzo, and finale, thus honoring the poem's four sections. (The work is sometimes performed in English, using not Poe's original, but a translation of Balmont's adaptation by Fanny S. Copeland.) The Scottish composer Hugh S. Roberton (1874–1947) published "Hear the Tolling of the Bells" (1909), "The Sledge Bells" (1909), and "Hear the Sledges with the Bells" (1919) based on Poe's poem. Josef Holbrooke composed his "The Bells, Prelude, Op. 50" on Poe's poem, and American folksinger Phil Ochs composed a tune to the poem recorded on