Literary notes about Languor (AI summary)
Languor is often employed by writers to convey a sense of physical or emotional weariness that is as much atmospheric as it is descriptive. In some works, languor marks the slow, dreamy quality of a character’s movements or the soft expression of their inner state, evoking both fragility and a certain resigned beauty [1, 2, 3]. At times, it hints at the languor of an afterglow or the quiet interlude following a burst of passion, merging physical exhaustion with a lingering, almost reflective melancholy [4, 5, 6]. In other contexts, languor stands in stark contrast to energy and activity, serving as a metaphor for both decay and idleness in personal as well as societal realms [7, 8].
- She had grown more slender, more pale than ever, and a certain languor was perceptible in her movements and the expression of her beautiful eyes.
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant - He closed his eyes in the languor of sleep.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - Her beauty was, I think, enhanced by that graceful languor that was peculiar to her.
— from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Then followed a long enjoyment of the after-languor, and then a more prolonged and rapturous embrace.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous - Gradually her eyes closed, and she was falling into a state of delightful languor.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - I sank on that magnificent back, as the languor that follows the ecstatic moment overtook me, but it was only for a short time.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous - What else do we know of amidst the present desolation and languor of culture, which could awaken any comforting expectation for the future?
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld