Literary notes about Cohere (AI summary)
In literature, the term cohere is used to signify both concrete and abstract forms of unity. In some contexts, it depicts physical adhesion—imagine metal filings brought together by a spark coil [1] or snow and clay particles that cohere under the right conditions [2, 3]. In more abstract contexts, cohere describes the logical or thematic binding of ideas, scenes, or societal elements, as when disjointed passages fail to cohere in a poem [4] or when disparate groups in a nation are compelled to cohere into unity [5, 6]. Even in poetic imagery, cohere enriches expression, evoking visions of water-drops that cohere to form a crystal lake or vast ocean [7].
- The spark coil sent electric waves out in every direction, and those which hit the metal filings made them cohere together.
— from The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday Uses by John F. (John Francis) Woodhull - When the snow is below 32°, and therefore dry , it will not cohere, whereas when it is in a thawing condition it can be squeezed into a hard mass.
— from Hours of Exercise in the Alps by John Tyndall - These substances mostly disintegrate more completely into very small particles, which when wet cohere into a sticky mass and form clays.
— from Aspects of plant life; with special reference to the British flora by R. Lloyd (Robert Lloyd) Praeger - Whole scenes and passages which do not cohere with the rest have got into the poem somehow, and have been left there.
— from The World of Homer by Andrew Lang - And there is danger still in the attempt to make a nation cohere on any mere territorial basis.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Numbers by Robert A. (Robert Alexander) Watson - But over and above all these various social groups and classes is the state, binding and making all cohere in a common unity.
— from History of Human Society by Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar - Oft have I seen the sparkling water-drops, Cohere in love, and make a crystal lake— A gulf—a sea—an ocean's mighty mirror.
— from Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems by James Avis Bartley
