Literary notes about Heaving (AI summary)
The word "heaving" is used in literature to evoke a dynamic, often visceral, sense of movement and emotion. In some passages, it literalizes physical exertion or struggle, as when a horse’s exhausted body is described with "heaving sides" or a character’s chest rises and falls in response to overwhelming feelings [1, 2]. At other times, it imbues the natural world with a living quality, turning turbulent seas or billowing waves into entities that seem to breathe with life [3, 4, 5]. Moreover, "heaving" serves as a metaphor for deep emotional release—a sigh laden with ecstasy or the containment of sorrow—underscoring internal conflict and the intensity of human experience [6, 7, 8, 9].
- The horse was hot and much exhausted; he hung his head down, while his heaving sides and trembling legs showed how hard he had been driven.
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting against his emotion.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea—on, on—until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship.
— from A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens - And now through Eger sound they ride, Upon the gently heaving tide.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson - Under us, and stretching away before us, was a heaving sea of molten fire of seemingly limitless extent.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - She was looking away again, shoulders heaving to silent laughter, the blush still stinging.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - “Enchanting!” said Marya Konstantinovna, heaving deep sighs of ecstasy.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - He sat down, and, heaving a deep sigh, began expounding to his bride-elect his views on domestic life and a wife’s duties.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Heaving a long-drawn sigh, Mr. Stiggins paused for a response.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
