Literary notes about Sempiternal (AI summary)
Literary usage of "sempiternal" reveals an emphasis on enduring permanence that authors employ in a range of contexts. In some works, it defines the everlasting character of abstract principles, such as divine truth or eternal government ideals ([1], [2], [3]), while in others it underscores a timeless, mythic quality, as when characters are described as unchanging or forever young ([4], [5]). Equally, the word can be applied in more ironic or satirical settings—often highlighting a ceaseless, mundane ritual like perpetual tea-drinking ([6]) or even lending an oddly eternal aspect to everyday objects and circumstances ([7], [8]). Across these varied applications, "sempiternal" consistently functions to intensify notions of unending duration and immutable essence, whether in the realm of the sublime or the absurd ([9], [10]).
- All truth is from the sempiternal source Of light divine.
— from The Task, and Other Poems by William Cowper - Nevertheless, there is not a single legitimate government, in spite of their sempiternal principles.
— from Sentimental Education; Or, The History of a Young Man. Volume 1 by Gustave Flaubert - Neither the mediation of moderate men nor the compulsion of authority can bring these two sempiternal divisions of the human race into agreement.
— from The Beginners of a Nation A History of the Source and Rise of the Earliest English Settlements in America, with Special Reference to the Life and Character of the People by Edward Eggleston - Wherefore he is neither now or then, but sempiternal and for ever.
— from The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2) by Valmiki - It is an exquisite representation of the marriage of Heracles and Hebe—of the hero, raised to divinity, with sempiternal youth.
— from The Sisters — Complete by Georg Ebers - On entering a long gallery, I found the whole family engaged in their sempiternal occupation of tea-drinking.
— from The Bed-Book of Happiness Being a colligation or assemblage of cheerful writings brought together from many quarters into this one compass for the diversion, distraction, and delight of those who lie abed,—a friend to the invalid, a companion to the sleepless, an excuse to the tired by Harold Begbie - All this associated with sempiternal liquor.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - The breath of brooks caressed him, he was enveloped in the sorceries of a sempiternal spring.
— from The Truth About Tristrem Varick: A Novel by Edgar Saltus - The scene of judgment on which attention is concentrated forms but an episode in the universal, sempiternal scheme of things.
— from The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti by John Addington Symonds - When she was dying she prayed, "Saviour! sanctify, confirm, keep, rule, strengthen, comfort me; and in the end bring me to Thy sempiternal joys."
— from The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
