Literary notes about Exhale (AI summary)
Writers use "exhale" in multifaceted ways that bridge the tangible act of breathing with abstract notions of release and influence. In some passages, it depicts the literal process of air or scent escaping, as when nature’s elements “exhale” perfume into the air or plants "exhale" volatile aromas to signal their presence ([1], [2]). In other contexts, the term takes on a more metaphorical quality, suggesting the effusion of emotions, character, or creative spirit—one character might "exhale" a gracious influence, while another’s soul is seen to "exhale" the warmth of endless prayer ([3], [4]). Additionally, it is employed to evoke the transient nature of existence itself, where life is compared to a final, delicate breath that dissipates like vapor ([5], [6]). Thus, across genres and styles, "exhale" enriches the text by linking the physical with the poetic, the scientific with the symbolic.
- The sordor and filths of nature, the sun shall dry up, and the wind exhale.
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Bushes of tall, white melilot, clustered with myriads of tiny flowers, exhale a sweet fragrance into the morning air.
— from Some Summer Days in Iowa by Frederick John Lazell - Though she could not enter into his mental or emotional life, did she not exhale for him a certain gracious influence?
— from A Man from the North by Arnold Bennett - And thus regally shrived, might I dare Exhale the warm infinite incense of prayer From my deep soul to thine.
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various - "One perfect day of peace, Or ere clean flame consume my fleshly veil, My life—a gilded vapor—shall exhale, Brief as a sigh—and cease.
— from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1 by Emma Lazarus - Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton
