Literary notes about Elusive (AI summary)
In literature, "elusive" is frequently employed to evoke a sense of mystery and transience, suggesting that what is being described is just out of reach—whether a physical goal, an intangible quality, or a fleeting moment of beauty. Authors use the term to convey that the subject resists simple definition or capture, as seen in the wandering search for a hidden waterway ([1]) or the intangible spirit of poetry that remains forever just beyond grasp ([2]). It imbues characters and experiences with a bittersweet quality that mirrors the complexity of human emotion, such as the pursuit of that ever-unattainable love ([3]) or the charming quality that's hard to pinpoint in an old building ([4]).
- When Woola had finished his meal I again took up my weary and seemingly endless wandering in quest of the elusive waterway.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs - It was the elusive spirit of poetry itself that he sensed and sought after but could not capture.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - Why are thy senses unsated Ever in quest of elusive Love that is deathless?
— from The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English by Sappho - With a fine old building, there is that elusive something called charm.
— from If You're Going to Live in the Country by Thomas H. (Thomas Hamilton) Ormsbee
