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Literary notes about WHORL (AI summary)

The word whorl is often employed to denote a circular, repeating arrangement found in both nature and human-made objects. It describes the spiral turns of shells and the layering of botanical structures, such as the successive rings of petals or leaves that create a natural symmetry [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In other contexts, whorl conveys more than mere form: it serves as a metaphor for movement or transformation, capturing the dynamic interplay of elements—be they the elegant cascade of hair or the rhythmic beat of sound [7][8]. This usage spans technical observations in scientific descriptions and poetic expressions that evoke a sense of continuous, circular progression.
  1. Gorgets were made of the outer shell, and large beads and these knobbed “ear bobs” from the inner whorl of the marine whelk, or conch.
    — from Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia by G. D. Pope
  2. Whorl —a single turn or volution of a coiled shell.
    — from Texas Fossils: An Amateur Collector's Handbook by William Henry Matthews
  3. Sometimes the last whorl is compressed and attenuated at the base, and sometimes ventricose and not compressed.
    — from A Manual of Conchology According to the System Laid Down by Lamarck, with the Late Improvements by De Blainville. Exemplified and Arranged for the Use of Students. by Thomas Wyatt
  4. The tulip has one whorl only, and it is called the envelope.
    — from Popular Scientific Recreationsin Natural Philosphy, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, etc., etc., etc. by Gaston Tissandier
  5. Its buds were pink, and it sprang from a whorl of leaves like those of a dandelion.
    — from Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway by Effie Price Gladding
  6. in diameter, with a thick tube; the petals are spreading, bright yellow in colour, and arranged in a regular, bell-like whorl.
    — from Cactus Culture for Amateurs Being Descriptions of the Various Cactuses Grown in This Country, With Full and Practical Instructions for Their Successful Cultivation by William Watson
  7. Her hair, yellow as corn-silk, and caught in a low chignon at her back, escaped its restraint of pins and fell in a whorl down her shirt-waist.
    — from Just Around the Corner: Romance en casserole by Fannie Hurst
  8. Here it is: Elected Silence, sing to me And beat upon my whorlèd ear; Pipe me to pastures still, and be The music that I care to hear.
    — from The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces by Joyce Kilmer

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