The Olympic Bell in East London’s Queen Elizabeth Park is the world’s largest tuned bell. It is 2 metres high and weighs 22 long tons. The bell is inscribed with the first line from Caliban’s speech in Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises”
The large bronze bell was created for the London 2012 Olympic Games by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
The Tempest Act 3 Scene 2 [Caliban]
“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears;
and sometime voices,
That, if I then had wak’d after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak’d
I cried to dream again.”