Literary notes about Period (AI summary)
In literature, the word "period" functions as a marker of time and structure with a range of nuanced meanings. It is often used to designate distinct historical or cultural eras, such as a bygone age that can be re-experienced or noted for its particular customs [1] or the epoch of the Restoration [2]. At the same time, it delineates phases within an individual’s life—a span marked by service or personal transformation [3][4]—and even signals a punctuation mark that concludes a thought [5]. This multiplicity of uses shows how "period" not only confines events within clear temporal boundaries but also enriches narrative rhythm and precision, weaving together the factual and the symbolic in storytelling [6][7][8].
- You had only to name the age or period, and you could live your past life therein over again.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz - The introduction of the open full-faced helmet as indicative of knight or baronet is known to date from about the period of the Restoration.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - Previously to entering the Army he served for a brief period in the Navy, and was three times wounded.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call by Charles Dalton - But the period of my dissipation would end and I always felt very sick afterwards.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - p. 210: “That's where the ice pudding is to be,” said Cook—Added a period to the end of the sentence.
— from Bliss, and other stories by Katherine Mansfield - My point and period will be throughly wrought, Or well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Now, every electrical circuit has a "natural period of oscillation" in which its electric charge vibrates.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - The navies, then, of the Hellenes during the period we have traversed were what I have described.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
