In the poem, what is the blacksmith's swinging of his sledge compared to?

The poem
says of the blacksmith:

You can hear him swing his heavy
sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village
bell,
When the evening sun is low.

The village
bell is the church bell. In the past, this was often the only way people who could not afford
clocks or watches knew what time it was. The sexton was the...