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Literary notes about Declamatory (AI summary)

The term "declamatory" has been deployed in literature to evoke a sense of theatricality and rhetorical flourish. In some works, it criticizes a tendency toward overly bombastic or insincere expression, as seen in the early poetry described for its “declamatory or bombastic” style that sometimes bordered on superficiality [1]. In other contexts, the word characterizes performances or musical expressions marked by an impassioned, rhetorical quality, such as a staged declamatory performance at an amateur theatre [2] or the stylized delivery of hymns and poetical pieces [3, 4]. Authors like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley reference a declamatory style that consciously imitates the grandeur of Eastern literature, presenting it as a deliberate and patterned mode of expression [5, 6]. Similarly, even historical figures are portrayed in contrast to this approach—where a smooth, polished manner is favored over a declamatory one, emphasizing seriousness and clarity [7]—and writers like Francis Bacon describe modes of expression as either tribunitial or declamatory, underscoring their formal, impassioned qualities [8].
  1. His poetry of this first period is generally, though not always, shallow and insincere in thought, and declamatory or bombastic in expression.
    — from English Literature by William J. Long
  2. In the evening a declamatory performance was to take place at the amateur theatre in a distant street.
    — from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. Andersen
  3. They sang very well, mostly quaint old songs and declamatory hymns, to fitting tunes.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
  4. They were very fond of it, and liked declamatory poetical pieces.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
  5. He had chosen this work, he said, because the declamatory style was framed in imitation of the Eastern authors.
    — from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  6. declamatory style was framed in imitation of the eastern authors.
    — from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  7. Burr was smooth, polished, concise, never diffuse or declamatory, always serious and impressive.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  8. 255 A tribunitial or declamatory manner.
    — from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

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