Literary notes about Alight (AI summary)
The word “alight” serves a variety of functions in literature, demonstrating remarkable versatility. In some instances, it denotes the act of dismounting or descending from a vehicle or steed, as seen when a character is invited to “alight” from a carriage ([1], [2], [3]), while in other contexts it vividly conveys the state of being lit, whether it’s a lamp still burning in a deserted room ([4], [5]), a hearth set afire ([6], [7]), or even a face glowing with intense emotion ([8], [9]). Authors also employ it metaphorically to depict subtle actions—such as a thought or suspicion gently “alighting” on one’s mind ([10], [11])—or to evoke imagery of creatures and objects settling upon an area ([12], [13]). This multiplicity of meanings enriches narratives by layering physical, emotional, and metaphorical nuances into the text.
- If in his barouche, I can see from my window he does not alight, but sits in his vehicle, and Mr. Stanton comes out to attend him.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - Prince Andrew got out of the carriage, helped his little wife to alight, and let her pass into the house before him.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - Sir knight, said Sir Gawaine, alight on foot, or else I will slay thy horse.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory - The lamps were still alight, all pale, but not a soul stirred—no living thing in sight.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - H2 anchor CHAPTER VIII—DANCE AT ROGER'S Roger's house in Prince's Gardens was brilliantly alight.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - By-and-by she put out the lights in the house, leaving only one candle alight where the girls were working, and then she went to bed.
— from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore - Twelve loads of firewood were set alight, and the stove and the walls were made red-hot—impossible to come within five versts of it.
— from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore - “Oh, have you really begun it?” cried Diana, all alight with eager interest in a moment.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - Once she looked up, her even teeth glistening through her smiling lips, her eyes alight.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - “Oh! thou art too generous,” said Matilda; “but rest assured that no suspicion can alight on me.”
— from The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - Adam was lost in the utter impossibility of finding any person for his fears to alight on.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot - They would alight upon their tentacles, fold their wings to a smallness almost rod-like, and hop into the interior.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - See, birds of every varied voice Around us in the woods rejoice, On creeper, shrub, and plant alight, Or wing from tree to tree their flight.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki
