What are bells?

Famous quotes containing the word bells:

“This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk!
The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work.
This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil:
Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.”
—Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)

“O he did whistle and she did sing,
And all the bells on earth did ring
For joy our Saviour Christ was born
On Christmas Day in the morning.”
—Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .

Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)

“The bells discuss the hour’s gradations,
Dusty shelves hold prayers and proofs:
Above, Chaldean constellations
Sparkle over crowded roofs.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)