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Literary notes about Vivify (AI summary)

In literature, the term "vivify" is employed to suggest bestowing life, energy, or clarity where it might be lacking. Writers use it to indicate the process of making abstract ideas or inanimate objects burst into activity, as in the revival of characters in a play to make them linger in the reader's memory [1] or the reanimation of mankind through myth, as when fire is portrayed as the spark that vivifies humanity [2]. It is also applied to describe a transformative infusion of spirit, whether that means brightening a gloomy interior with emotion [3] or animating a narrative to keep it engaging [4]. This multifaceted use underscores a broader literary ambition: to breathe life into ideas, experiences, and even entire worlds, challenging the boundaries of mere representation.
  1. It will vivify the play again, and make the characters live in your memory as mere reading never will.
    — from Public Speaking by Clarence Stratton
  2. Fire was worshipped as the active agent of the universe, and Prometheus was fabled to have stolen fire from heaven to vivify mankind.
    — from Popular Scientific Recreationsin Natural Philosphy, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, etc., etc., etc. by Gaston Tissandier
  3. Her face seemed to vivify the gloomy interior.
    — from The Wheat Princess by Jean Webster
  4. [151] Such remarks vivify the narrative, and keep up an interest in the writer.
    — from The Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther by Walter F. (Walter Frederic) Adeney

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