Literary notes about Lambent (AI summary)
The term "lambent" is frequently employed to evoke a quality of soft, gentle radiance that both illuminates and transforms its subject. Writers use it to describe not only the physical quality of light—a flickering, molten glow seen in phrases like “lambent blue flame” [1] or “lambent moonstones” [2]—but also to capture the subtle brilliance of human emotion and intellect, as when a character’s eyes are shown with a “lambent flame” [3] or when inner thoughts are compared to a “lambent flame” of imagination [4]. This richly visual adjective bridges the literal and metaphorical, imbuing both natural landscapes and inner states with a luminous, ephemeral quality [5], [6].
- It was not enveloped in lambent blue flame—it was not crackling in the burning brandy.
— from A Book of Ghosts by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - In the corridors are globes which at night look like lambent moonstones, casting soft light.
— from Palaces and Courts of the Exposition A Handbook of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, with Special Reference to the Symbolism by Juliet Helena Lumbard James - Wolffert's eyes glowed with a deep but lambent flame as he spoke of "Dr. Caiaphas."
— from John Marvel, Assistant by Thomas Nelson Page - He let the lambent flame of his imagination play around common facts. '
— from The Infidel: A Story of the Great Revival by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon - At the slightest impact of the outside world upon his consciousness, his thoughts, sympathies, and emotions leapt and played like lambent flame.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - A trembling joy, lambent as a faint light, played like a fairy host around him.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
