WheRe WordS WanDer #10: Saved by the Bell

There is a widespread notion that 'saved by the bell' originated as an expression that relates to people being buried alive. The idea was that, if someone were comatose and mistakenly pronounced dead and interred, they could, if they later revived, ring a bell that was attached to the coffin and be saved.

There's no evidence to show that anyone was ever saved by these coffins or even that they were ever put to use, and there's a similar lack of evidence of the phrase 'saved by the bell' ever being used in that sense prior to it having been used in other contexts.

In fact, the expression is boxing slang and it came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the respite signalled by bell that marks the end of a round. The earliest reference to this that I can find is in the Massachusetts newspaper The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, February 1893:

"Martin Flaherty defeated Bobby Burns in 32 rounds by a complete knockout. Half a dozen times Flaherty was saved by the bell in the earlier rounds."

Poetry: Burial Money

Ghetto hustlers scurrying
between the
embers
skating
Across the refuse
witnesses to
the chemical conflagration that
choked the city half to death
they know the identity
of the Ghost with a Match
he is one of them
part
of the collective Undreaming
A generation lost to the
wanton pursuit
of power
The money being
Offerred
is no reward
No matter
how many zeros
follow the digits
For them
its not to arrange a more
comfortable life
but rather a death
of dignity
For they have
with the unfathomable rubble
a molecular bond
having been raised in a place where
Omerta
is the only law
that all respect
where a grinding and uncertain
life
is greatly preferred to
certain death
One gruesome story following
another
a heart-piercing narrative
for not too far
down the highway
renamed in glorious ceremony
Four others were
ruthlessly
unceremoniously
brought to the end
of their
life roads
A callous murder ritual
that will be
extended by the State
For surely there will be
another offer of
Burial money
and just like in
Riverton
it cna never be
enough