Literary notes about Darkling (AI summary)
The term "darkling" is often deployed to evoke both a literal and metaphorical sense of pervasive darkness and mystery. Writers use it to describe murky natural settings—a darkling sea, sky, or forest—that set an eerie, melancholic tone [1][2][3]. At the same time, it conveys internal states of uncertainty, despair, or contemplation, capturing moments when human experience is shrouded in gloom or foreboding [4][5][6]. In mythic and epic narratives, "darkling" even transforms into a cosmic descriptor, hinting at lost realms or fatal destinies, as seen when ancient powers and the vast, inscrutable heavens are invoked [7][8][9]. This layered usage allows the word to bridge tangible landscapes and the intangible fog of the human spirit.
- He looked vaguely at the moon riding high in the heavens above the long, broad expanse of the Mississippi and the darkling forests on either hand.
— from The Raid of The Guerilla, and Other Stories by Mary Noailles Murfree - In that darkling calm my senses seemed preternaturally sharpened.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - It needed but this to complete the grim suggestiveness of the barren waste, the chilling wind, and the darkling sky.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - Darkling I listen; and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death.
— from The World's Best Poetry, Volume 03: Sorrow and Consolation - He himself slept ill, absorbed in regret and darkling conjecture.
— from The Disentanglers by Andrew Lang - It was remarked that Mr. Osborne was particularly quiet and gentle all day, to the surprise of those who had augured ill from his darkling demeanour.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - But still some power doth his foot recall From stumbling down to Hades’ darkling hall.
— from The Seven Plays in English Verse by Sophocles - Ye heroes of Elysium, who have passed the darkling flood,—ye happy souls, soon shall I join your band.
— from Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch - At last, more than thirty million years hence, the huge red-hot dome of the sun had come to obscure nearly a tenth part of the darkling heavens.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
