The resonance of a handbell rang the hours at our school: it summoned us to class each day; signified the end of play; commanded a straighter line by the canteen at dinnertime; at four o’clock, it made me wait expectantly at the school gate.
Kim M. Russell, 17th October 2022
After a very long hiatus, I am hosting again at the dVerse Poets Pub, and I’m ringing in this Monday’s Quadrille with the word ‘bell’.
For whom does that bell toll? Well, you’ll just have to come along and find out!
writing in north norfolk 
To have such wonderful bells… our school was modern enough to have electric bells calling us to class and letting us into freedom afterward.
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We had electric bells at the schools I taught in and I hated them! Give me a good old-fashioned hand bell any day. It was a privilege to ring it too.
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Kim, I love this! We both went back to school for bell!! How we waited gor the last bell if the day! 🙂
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Thanks Punam. I love it when we chime together! 🙂
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You are welcome. 🙂
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the rhymes chime too Kim – Bravo!
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🙂
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I love this! The pride in ringing the bell – you had to really earn that privilege. I love the simplicity of these couplets, Kim.
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Thank you, Sarah. As I remember it, we all wanted to be bell monitor.
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Oh yes! I was pretty keen at primary school!
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Puzzling that such a lovely sound be used to create such regimentation. Then again, sometimes regimentation is a comfort and not a burden.
–Shay
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Especially in British schools, Shay.
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I love this. Love the meter and rhyme, and the ending is fabulous.
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Thanks Marilyn!
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I’ve seen hand bells in movies but never in real life. Seems like it would have a much better sound than electric ones.
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Definitely, Lisa. 😉
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The only school bell I liked was the one that rang when it was time to go home! Great poem!
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Thank you for reading and commenting.
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What joyous bells those were, the ones that let us out of school, I mean!
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Joyous bells indeed, Dora!
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Lovely rhythm and topic. Sound resonates directly with our soul.
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Thank you Susan. I love the sound of bells. It’s a shame we don’t have bells in our village church.
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❤
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WOW!!
You threw me into a state of nostalgia with this one, Kim.
Much❤love
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Thank you, Gillena. Nostalgia is always good. Much love winging its way back to you.
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Rhyming very well Kim and it brings memories of old. Thanks for hosting Ma’am!
Hank
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Thanks so much, Hank!
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I could hear the bells ringing while reading. Nicely done.
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Thank you!
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Such lovely rhyme and rhythm in this one, Kim. And great to see you back!
An evocative poem that sends me back to a place I never experienced. We never had handbells in my schools.
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Thank you, Merril. We all wanted to be bell monitor in our school.
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It sounds fun and a good memory.
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Kim, I enjoyed reading of the school bell. Our teacher had hers standing on the back of her desk, I don’t remember her ever ringing it inside the schoolhouse. Mostly she would stand at the schoolhouse door, at the back of the room, and ring us in from play. Except on days when she would be outside playing with us. It was a one-room school, most years we had about eight children, I was alone in my grades from third grade through the eighth. In the single picture I have there were eight of us and our teacher. Four of us were cousins.
Thank you sooo much for this lovely prompt and for your write. It brought many pleasant memories to me.
..
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My pleasure, Jim!
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Oh, yes, the bells of school! How could I forget. Prompting us out of the halls and into class, marking the hours. I love your poem, the cadence sings.
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Thank you, Yvonne!
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I’d forgotten about the bell, and the figure of Sister Theresa standing at the top of the steps ringing it. All those games of marbles left unresolved and skipping ropes suddenly gone slack 🙂
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And two balls up the wall suddenly becoming one.😊
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Remembering the regimentation of those Pavlovian days. Well done.
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