The use of a bell or bell sounds in literature are too numerous to mention. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (in reference to John Donne's poem) comes to mind as well as Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Bells" which includes the silver bells of youth and delight, the golden bells of coupling and anticipation of the future, the brazen bells that signal the travails of loss, and finally the death knell; the iron bells that clang the ultimate final repose of body and spirit.
The word "bell" comes from Old English, "belle" of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch, "bel." We commonly use bell in idioms such as, "I'll be there with bells on" - ( a medieval reference), when something either sounds familiar or not as in "That doesn't ring a bell"- to "saved by the bell"- (a reference from the sport of boxing-as well as a TV show).
In the poem "The Bells," Poe's metaphorical use of bells traces the inevitability of the life cycle. The silver bells represent the "merriment" of youth, all is right with the "Heavens." The golden bells foretell the upcoming "happiness" of "harmony" - oh, how the future "swells" with "rapture."
Next, the brazen bells "scream out their affright!" They "clang", and clash, and roar!" The realization that life comes to an end, at times tragically, (as it was with the death of Poe's wife by a fire) is filled even with "the anger of the bells."
Finally, the iron bells command the attention of the living in "the silence of the night" to the death of someone's loved one - "To the throbbing of the bells,/Of the bells, bells, bells-/To the sobbing of the bells....Bells, bells, bells -/ To the moaning and the groaning of the bells."
The thing about the beauty and the possible visceral prompting that the sound of a bell possesses is that after the clapper strikes the inside surface of the bell, it forces a ring. This ring could be like a decision we make, a choice, a gesture or action. After the 'deal' is struck, like the hammer striking the cast metal, you cannot pull back the ring itself; you cannot UNRING a bell.
Like the discordant and resonant sound of a bell, our decisions are irreversible. We must be careful about the choices we make along life's path because we cannot at all times choose our consequences. Be aware of the fact that since the 'bell has rung' of a singular action, gesture, or word that turns out to be a mistake, it can't be taken back. There will be times after we have struck the bell that what is left is only the echo of regret. Sure, we can learn lessons from bells struck that shouldn't have rung forth, but the suffering as a consequence will remain as a tangible sound in our hearts and future memories.
Understand you cannot unring a bell. Know you are free to chose. Learn the different sounds of a ringing bell and be steadfast and sure in its command and call to the reverberating peal of life-altering consequence.