Music and Time Annotation << Back Darius Milhaud’s ballet "The Bells" based on Edgar Poe’s homonymous poem A. Korobeinikov Edgar Poe’s poem "The Bells" (1848) has become one of most mysterious and important poet’s masterpieces for the subsequent generations of poets, first of all, due to its suggestive effect raised by onomatopoeic poetical means. The unique range of the poem’s images, which are directly connected with sound associations, has become a base for two masterpieces of classical music: homonymous Poem by Rachmaninov and Ballet by Milhaud. These musical incarnations of Poe’s fantasy are substantially different from each other, and this article is mainly purposed to put light on the structure and qualities of the less known and performed Milhaud’s outstanding piece. Keywords: D. Milhaud, E. Poe, S. Rahmaninov. Pp. 40–43. E-mail: akorobeinikov@yandex.ru