Literary notes about Summit (AI summary)
The word "summit" is deployed in literature as both a concrete reference to a peak—be it a mountain, hill, or architectural structure—and as a potent metaphor for the pinnacle of achievement or ultimate insight. It is often used to evoke the image of a challenging ascent culminating in a moment of breathtaking clarity or transcendence, as in passages where characters reach the top of a hill or mountain to survey a vast world [1], [2], [3], [4]. At the same time, it symbolizes the climax of a personal or collective journey, emphasizing moments of triumph, discovery, or finality [5], [6], [7], [8]. Even in mythic or poetic contexts, “summit” is imbued with a transcendent quality, representing the highest ideals, whether it be the dwelling of deities or the zenith of human honor and artistic expression [9], [10], [11].
- They stopped at the summit of the stairs.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - He has never ascended the summit of a hill.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - A foot trail 1 mile long leads from the Granite Park chalet to the summit of Swiftcurrent Mountain upon which a fire lookout is located.
— from Glacier National Park [Montana] by United States. Department of the Interior - On arriving at a hill, I would slowly ride to its summit, and stand there to survey the prospect.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - To look down upon myself, and even upon my stars: that only would I call my SUMMIT, that hath remained for me as my LAST summit!—
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - And whoso would reach the summit of fame and of honour, I know where he may find it.
— from The Mabinogion - D’Artagnan, on his part, had gained the summit of all his wishes.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - In their eyes the principals had reached the summit of human honor.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - Behold that excellent and bright summit of the Meru, where sitteth the great sire (Brahma) with the celestials happy in self-knowledge.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - The ideal is nothing but the culminating point of logic, the same as the beautiful is nothing but the summit of the true.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Throughout the entire Victorian period Tennyson stood at the summit of poetry in England.
— from English Literature by William J. Long
