Literary notes about Delirious (AI summary)
The term "delirious" is frequently used by authors to convey a state of overwhelming disorientation—whether physical, mental, or emotional—that heightens the narrative’s intensity. In some works, it describes a fever-bound physical state where characters become incoherent or dangerously incapacitated, as when a character lies feverish and delirious [1, 2, 3]. In others, it captures an almost ecstatic emotional frenzy or wild imagination, suggesting a blurring of normal perception, as seen in moments of furious passion or rapturous joy [4, 5, 6]. Whether signaling the ravings of a mind overcome by fever or the metaphorical spinning of reality into chaos, this versatile adjective enriches the depiction of moments when characters cross the threshold from clarity to a state of delirium [7, 8, 9].
- But the shock of the night’s adventures had shattered his nerves, and before morning he lay delirious in a high fever under the care of Dr. Mortimer.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - " The fever rose very high, and all that night the boy was delirious.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore - Herbert was somewhat delirious, but the fever did not reappear in the night, and did not return either during the following day.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - You!' As He thundered out these words, He violently grasped Antonia's arm, and spurned the earth with delirious fury.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. Lewis - This is lovelier and sweeter, Men of Ithaca, this is meeter, In the hollow rosy vale to tarry, Like a dreamy Lotos-eater, a delirious Lotos-eater!
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson - Let's, like two angels tortured by Some dark, delirious phantasy, Pursue the distant mirage drawn O'er the blue crystal of the dawn!
— from The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire - I am delirious, in fact, talk any nonsense you like, I don't care!
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It tossed and tossed, — A little brig I knew, — O'ertook by blast, It spun and spun, And groped delirious, for morn.
— from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson - From that moment everything whirled about him, as though he were delirious.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
