Literary notes about Circle (AI summary)
The word "circle" in literature assumes a myriad of connotations, stretching from the literal and geometric to the deeply metaphorical. In some texts, it identifies a physical shape—the circle of stars intersecting with mountains [1] or the precise construction of a geometric figure used in design and measurement [2, 3]—while in other works it embodies social or emotional boundaries, such as the intimate family circle [4] or the close-knit circle of acquaintances [5]. It is also invoked as a symbol of continuity, cyclicality, and the inescapable cycle of fate and time [6, 7]. Moreover, the circle can serve as a protective enclosure or a confining boundary, whether illustrating military formations [8, 9] or the ritualistic gatherings that define communal and sacred practices [10, 11]. In this way, across diverse literary traditions, the circle becomes a rich emblem for both the physical and abstract contours of human experience.
- The circle of the stars cut by the circle of the mountains.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville - The two lines with the least variation are a perfectly straight line and a circle.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Then, opening your compasses to this point which marks the length of the gnomon's shadow, describe a circle from the centre.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio - our pleasant little family circle is broken up.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon - She was as capricious as ever in the choice of her acquaintances, and admitted few into her narrow circle.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - [538] Antoninus says (ii. 14), "All things from eternity are of like forms, and come round in a circle."
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - Let raffs be rife in prose and rhyme, We lack not rhymes and reasons, As on this whirligig of Time 4 We circle with the seasons.
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson - and then the Tall One wound himself round the two in a circle, and the Stout One placed himself by the door, so that no living creature could enter.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - It was no easy matter for the English to ride against the Northmen on account of their spears; therefore they rode in a circle around them.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson - Hymns and prayers are the principal worship; the Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed."
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The circle of sacred objects cannot be determined, then, once for all.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
