What are rings?

Famous quotes containing the word rings:

“Ye say they all have passed away,
That noble race and brave;
That their light canoes have vanished
From off the crested wave;
That, mid the forests where they roamed,
There rings no hunters’ shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”
—Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)

“The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)