Literary notes about clink (AI summary)
The word "clink" functions as a vivid piece of auditory imagery in literature, evoking metallic sounds that both set a scene and deepen the narrative’s atmosphere. Authors employ it to capture the sharp, resonant echo of metal—whether it is the subtle chink of chains that hints at imprisonment and foreboding [1] or the delicate music of glasses in a convivial gathering that underscores momentary joy or solemnity [2, 3]. In other contexts, the clink marks the punctuated cadence of movement, such as the rhythmic sound of horse’s hooves on cobblestones that adds suspense or mystery to a scene [4, 5]. Even in lighter moments, the onomatopoeic quality of "clink" intensifies the sensory experience, merging the literal and the symbolic to enrich the narrative texture [6, 7].
- Yes, once there was one, for a moment: a file of native convicts passed along in charge of an officer, and we caught the soft clink of their chains.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain - He sat, gazing downward, and gradually thought he heard the old voices and the clink of glasses.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - There I have had to sit alone with him, to clink glasses and drink with him, and to listen to his ribald, silly talk.
— from Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen - That is ‘The Cedars,’ and beside that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have little doubt, caught the clink of our horse’s feet.”
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Somewhere on the upper high road horses were trotting, and the metallic clink of their hoofs sounded in the night stillness.
— from A Slav Soul, and Other Stories by A. I. (Aleksandr Ivanovich) Kuprin - But the forge was a very short distance off, and I went towards it under the sweet green limes, listening for the clink of Joe's hammer.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Then Joe began to hammer and clink, hammer and clink, and we all looked on.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens