Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?

"Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?" is the sixth song in Leo Smit's song cycle Beyond Circumference. Beyond Circumference is the fourth of Smit's six song cycles setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

For more information about Leo Smit's Emily Dickinson song cycles, please visit the pages for The Ecstatic Pilgrimage and Leo Smit.

For inquiries about Leo Smit and to obtain sheet music, please contact Nils Vigeland at [email protected].

Date: 1990Composer: Leo SmitText: Emily DickinsonSong Collection: Beyond Circumference

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Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause? (poem 947)
by Emily Dickinson

Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?
“A Soul has gone to Heaven”
I’m answered in a lonesome tone —
Is Heaven then a Prison?

That Bells should ring till all should know
A Soul had gone to Heaven
Would seem to me the more the way
A Good News should be given.

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