It was first published with illustrations in Saturday Review, Christmas Supplement 1896 and then published in McClure's Magazine in February 1897 as "The Bell-Buoy", with illustrations by Oliver Herford.
Some changes to the wording occurred sometime between the edition in McClure's and when it was collected in Rudyard Kipling's verse: inclusive edition, 1885-1918 (1919) as "The Bell Buoy".
T. S. Eliot included the poem in his 1941 collection A Choice of Kipling's Verse.
The church bell, controlled by the authority of the church, would have to fight with "darkling Powers" instead of independently doing its vital work and struggling with the darkling sea.
This article related to a poem from the UK or its predecessor states is a stub.