Literary notes about Channel (AI summary)
In literature, "channel" serves as a versatile term that spans both the literal and metaphorical. It is often used to denote physical passages—a natural conduit for water in the earth's crust [1], the narrow waterway navigated by seafarers [2, 3, 4], or even carefully engineered navigational routes [5]—while also symbolizing the medium through which emotions, ideas, and commerce flow. Authors evoke this dual imagery when referring to the inner workings of the heart, which, devoid of a proper channel for emotion, remains insular [6], or when ideas and discourse are steered into new pathways, altering the course of thought [7, 8, 9]. This multiplicity of uses underscores the word's capacity to link physical geography with abstract concepts, providing a rich metaphor for connection and transition throughout the written word.
- The waters of the Cephisus here burst forth from their subterraneous channel.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - The sailor first crossed the channel, and steered close to the southern point of the islet.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - 1885.—Sir William Preece signalled from Lavernock Point, near Cardiff, to Steep Holm, an island in the Bristol Channel.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - We sailed through the barren Archipelago, and into the narrow channel they sometimes call the Dardanelles and sometimes the Hellespont.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - It flows through the cock downwards through channel D into the lower half of the cylinder.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - The insulation of his heart by reserve during these many years, without a channel of any kind for disposable emotion, had worked its effect.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - I had raised my hat and was about to make some explanatory remark when her own words turned all my thoughts into a new channel.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - He had been as keen as any of them upon the business until this sudden incident had drawn his thoughts into another channel.
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - My solicitude is so great, and my suspense so painful, that I cannot rest a moment in peace, or turn my thoughts into any other channel.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney
