Literary notes about Isle (AI summary)
The word “isle” has long served as a versatile literary device, evoking both a tangible geographical space and a metaphorical realm of mystery, isolation, or enchantment. In medieval and travel accounts such as Sir John Mandeville’s narratives, myriad isles—whether the royal Isle of Pentexoire ([1]), the enigmatic Betemga ([2], [3]), or even the vast Isles described in his voyages ([4], [5])—offer readers a sense of distant, exotic exploration. At the same time, Romantic and Gothic literature transforms the isle into a symbol of solitude and poignancy, as seen in Mary Shelley's use of an uninhabited isle to mirror inner emotional detachment ([6], [7]) and in Kate Chopin’s modern settings where the isle underscores personal isolation ([8], [9]). Poets and chroniclers like Walter Scott and Edgar Allan Poe further heighten its allure by bestowing upon the isle a dreamlike, almost otherworldly quality ([10], [11], [12]).
- And the best city in the Isle of Pentexoire is Nyse, that is a full royal city and a noble, and full rich.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville - And fast beside is another isle, that is clept Betemga, that is a good isle and a plenteous.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville - And fast beside is another isle, that is clept Betemga, that is a good isle and a plenteous.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville - This isle is nigh eight hundred mile long from Constantinople.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville - From that isle men go by sea to another isle that is clept Chana, where is great plenty of corn and wine.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville - I walked about the isle like a restless spectre, separated from all it loved, and miserable in the separation.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - I walked about the isle like a restless spectre, separated from all it loved and miserable in the separation.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Their intimacy, begun at Grand Isle, had not declined, and they had seen each other with some frequency since their return to the city.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - On rainy or melancholy days Edna went out and sought the society of the friends she had made at Grand Isle.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - XX. 'Viewing the mountain's ridge askance, The Saxons stood in sullen trance, Till Moray pointed with his lance, And cried: "Behold yon isle!— See!
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - In our isle's enchanted hall, Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, Fairy strains of music fall, Every sense in slumber dewing.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - H2 anchor TO ZANTE FAIR isle, that from the fairest of all flowers, Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take How many memories of what radiant hours
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
