Literary notes about Lamentable (AI summary)
The term “lamentable” is deployed by many authors to evoke feelings of sorrow and regret, often conveying a situation marked by misfortune or decay. It is used to describe both personal afflictions and broader societal issues, as in the portrayal of dismal health conditions and derelict states of affairs ([1], [2]). In dramatic literature, it underscores the tragic fate of characters and the bitterness of lost hopes, whether lamenting a downcast existence in Shakespearean verse ([3], [4]) or marking the decline of institutions and eras in historical narratives ([5], [6]). Its versatility allows it to intensify the emotional landscape of a work, making the reader pause at the depicted sorrow and despair.
- I only say to you what the lamentable state of my health obliges me to say to everybody.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - It is lamentable that the Philippines Government possesses no library of works on the Archipelago.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows - Ah what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance?
— from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
— from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - It wore the lamentable aspect of all constructions of hatred, ruin.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - For already the civil wars had begun; and before this, some lamentable battles and execrable massacres had occurred.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
