What are harness bell?
Harness bells are small bells attached to the harness rope of a
riding-horse which will tinkle as the horse rides or moves to warn
others of its coming or its whereabouts. In Robert Frost's famous
poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening we can read: "He gave his
harness bells a shake, To ask if there is some mistake." The horse
whose animal instincts are more sharp than man's sensed danger in
staying in the snow-falling forest for long. So to rouse his master
and to ask if there is some mistake, he gave his harness bells a
shake which alone could he do, rather than felling his master from
his back to rouse him from his revery. The sound of the horse bells
were heard distinctly against the sweeping sound of easily flowing
wind and down falling snow. The master was roused from his
equestrian day dream and leading the horse continued on his
journey. Harness bells in Poetry seem to have no other reference or
relevance.