Literary notes about Sweeping (AI summary)
The word “sweeping” acts as a multifaceted adjective and verb in literature, capturing an array of motions and meanings. It is employed to describe both literal physical actions—such as the broad, graceful movement of a train of fabric or the cleaning of a room [1], [2], [3]—and metaphorical, expansive influences that transform landscapes, societies, or emotions [4], [5], [6]. In some contexts, it vividly portrays dynamic gestures or natural forces that carry objects or moods in their flow [7], [8], while in others it denotes an all-encompassing scope, whether in the political ambitions of a leader or the profound shifts within a narrative [9], [10]. This versatility lends a dramatic quality to the prose, enabling authors to evoke both tangible movement and abstract transformation.
- If some proud brother eyed me with disdain, Or scornful sister with her sweeping train, Thy gentle accents soften'd all my pain.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Up jumped the Prince, seized a broom, took his place on the bridge, and began sweeping here, clearing up there.
— from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore - After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington - Following Jefferson's sweeping social success, men abandoned knee breeches and became democratic in garb as well as in thought.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - A sort of a gust of battle came sweeping toward that part of the line where lay the youth's regiment.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - It was an effort of unequaled power, sweeping down, like a very tornado, every opposing barrier, whether of sentiment or opinion.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - The shutters had been driven in with an axe, and now the axe was descending in sweeping blows upon the window frame and the iron bars defending it.
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells - In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - The capability of any given people for fulfilling the conditions of a given form of government can not be pronounced on by any sweeping rule.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill - Leonard looked at her wondering, and had the sense of great things sweeping out of the shrouded night.
— from Howards End by E. M. Forster
