Tintinnabulation

Tintinnabulation is the specific sound of a ringing bell only after it has been struck. The lingering sound that occurs after the bell has been struck. This word was invented by Edgar Allan Poe as used in the first stanza of his poem The Bells.

From Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells"

Date: c1845

I

Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

See also

• Tintinnabuli
• Tintinnabulum