The bells don't ring anymore

The bells sound in the distant village
Rung by the restless wind
Trod not by the foot of man since an age
Rarely do they now ring
Yet that place was once fair and green
When children played in the once-lush hills
Many stories these trees have seen
And many more the rocks-resting uncounted still
What happened so long ago?
That it seems now the beginning of time
What little do mortal men now know
Of those wondrous bells that chime
Once they were rung by lusty hands
To proclaim great victories or warn
Of danger stalking through the lands
All erased now by the ever running sands
Of time: the greatest leveller

What do men now know
Of the race that lived and loved
Here in this valley, in the shadow
Of the hills a refuge from the heavens above.
Dead men they tell no tales
And none indeed are sung
Yet the sound echoes among the vales
When the bells the wind has rung
That wondrous chime recalls to them
The times that passed away
The hills remember about those men
When they were in their glory days
Tales indeed are many and more
Of forts besieged of battles won
Yet what of that might does now endure
When the last songs have been sung.

The bells ring once again
And strangely stir my heart
Of what and why I do not know
Yet I cannot depart
The shades of men yet linger here
The traces of love and sorrow
I sense their presence very near
I wish the hills memory to borrow
But the speech of stone
No man can speak and none can sing
For known to the rocks alone
Are tales of those wondrous things...