Literary notes about Collect (AI summary)
In literature, the word “collect” is deployed in a variety of ways that underscore both the literal and metaphorical act of gathering. It is used to denote a reflective assembly of thoughts, as when a character pauses “to collect my thoughts” in a moment of introspection [1, 2]. At other times, it evokes the image of rallying people for a purpose, whether it be a leader assembling distinguished figures [3] or a shepherd gathering his flock [4]. The term also captures the practical act of accumulating tangible items, from debts [5] and coins [6] to shells and foodstuffs [7, 8]. Even in contexts of acquiring information or materials—a journalist seeking to “collect news” [9] or a military leader “collecting his forces” [10]—the use of “collect” consistently conveys the idea of bringing disparate elements together into a coherent whole.
- I will sit in the parlor awhile, and collect my thoughts.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - I tried to collect my thoughts, but I was stunned.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - The chief consulted apart with his companions, and messengers despatched to collect certain others of the most distinguished men of the tribe.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - Watch a good shepherd collect his flock at evening.
— from The Heart-Cry of Jesus by Byron J. Rees - Let the laws leave the matter in my hands, and have no fears: I would find the debtor and collect the debt.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - Why, they can’t collect the money for the niggers yet—they’re in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary.”
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - A short time after this the mother sent the children into the wood to collect fagots.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang - She heard again a dog howling, and she took a kaboma (wooden plate) and went on to the fringing reef to collect shells.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - I will do what I can to collect news, and for this purpose I will make a point of visiting and seeing men of every shade of opinion.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - During this diversion of the Mogul arms, Bajazet had two years to collect his forces for a more serious encounter.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
