Literary notes about CRADLE (AI summary)
The term "cradle" appears in a variety of expressive ways throughout literature, serving both as a literal object and a potent symbol of beginnings and origins. In some works, it simply denotes the infant's resting place or a tool for caring for a child, emphasizing nurture and protection ([1], [2]). In other texts, the word is used metaphorically to denote the source of ideas, traditions, or even entire civilizations; authors evoke images of a starting point—from which lives and empires emerge—to underline themes of continuity and development ([3], [4], [5]). Additionally, the phrase “from the cradle to the grave” appears in several works to encapsulate the entirety of life, highlighting the inescapable march of destiny and routine ([6], [7]). Such varied use underscores the term's versatility, bridging the tangible world of early care with more abstract notions of origin and influence.
- She took the child in her arms, and rocked it a while, and then, shaking up its pillow, laid it down in its cradle, and covered it over again.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - Put him in a big cradle, well padded, where he can move easily and safely.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - When man began his pilgrimage from the cradle of Asia, woman [Pg 274] was not allowed to speak before a court of justice.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - [3] It is for this reason that his religion has always been less [Pg 215] observed in Arabia, its cradle, than in all the other Mohammedan countries.
— from On Love by Stendhal - —This fable points at, and enters, the cradle of nature.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon - From his cradle to his grave he is the slave of ancient usage.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Because, in minds that have been practically formed by rule and line, from the cradle upwards, this is so curious, so incomprehensible.’
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens
