Literary notes about Assign (AI summary)
The word "assign" in literature serves as a versatile term, often conveying the act of bestowing roles, attributing responsibilities, or determining fates. In classical epics, it is used to denote how deities determine destinies and realms, as when gods "assign" fates ([1], [2]). At the same time, scholarly and legal writings employ the term to indicate the formal allocation of rights or responsibilities, evident in the works of Holmes and Jefferson ([3], [4], [5], [6]). Poetic and narrative texts also utilize "assign" to suggest the deliberate imposition of order or to indicate the allocation of honor, position, or even causation, as seen in the writings of Milton, Dante, and others ([7], [8], [9]). This layered usage—from mythic determinism to legal appointment and artistic attribution—illustrates the rich and multi-dimensional character of the word as it adapts to various contexts and genres.
- There shall you know what realms the gods assign, And learn the fates and fortunes of your line.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - “All are concern’d to know what place the god Assign’d, and where determin’d our abode.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - The same expression was used in discussing the pledgee's right to assign the pledge, /3/
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - Alowen , v. to assign, bestow, to give an allowance to, NED, Palsg.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The assign could vouch the first grantor only on the principles of succession.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - There is no doubt that any orchestrator would assign the tremolo to the strings and the fanfare to a trumpet, never vice versa .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton - The poets in front of mine attitudes fine (Which the proudest of monuments seem to implant), To studies profound all their moments assign,
— from The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire - That Dante should assign the least grievous punishment of all to this sin throws light upon his views of life.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
