Literary notes about Torrent (AI summary)
Literary authors use “torrent” both as a vivid descriptor of natural, often overwhelming force and as a metaphor for the inexorable flow of human emotions and events. In some works the term vividly illustrates the physical rush of water—whether a raging current that carries characters away or a landscape transformed by an unstoppable flood [1][2][3]—while in others it symbolizes the relentless outpour of sorrow, passion, or ideas, as when tears, words, or feelings burst forth uncontrollably [4][5][6]. This dual usage underlines a common literary strategy: to borrow the powerful imagery of nature’s might to convey the intensity and unpredictability of emotional experiences or historical change [7][8].
- Then, carried away as by a rushing torrent, she soon began to recall the day before.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - A torrent had carried us from one sea to the other.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - I understood at once that he was searching for the exact spot where the torrent's roar was most plainly heard.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - Each word of Ráma's like a dart Had pierced the lady to the heart; And from her sweet eyes unrestrained The torrent of her sorrows, rained.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - “Yes, I did write it,” she cried, pouring out her soul in a torrent of words.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - Elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - The road was now open, and Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till he was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Then a flood of sorrow invaded his heart, a torrent of despair which seemed to overwhelm him and drive him mad.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant