Literary notes about acclivity (AI summary)
The term "acclivity" in literature has been employed to evoke both physical ascent and the metaphorical challenges of upward movement. In many works, such as Hardy's description of a steep climb during a moment of pause [1], the word paints a vivid picture of strenuous journeying, suggesting the literal exertion of moving upward. Authors like Flavius Josephus [2] and Nathaniel Hawthorne [3] use it to describe man-made or natural raised passages, thus emphasizing the gradual effort needed to advance. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's and the encyclopedia's usages further highlight its role in setting a dramatic, often elevated scene where the acclivity becomes a defining feature of the landscape [4], [5].
- He had traversed the greater part of this depression, and was climbing the western acclivity when, pausing for breath, he unconsciously looked back.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - Let the ascent to it be not by steps 16 but by an acclivity of raised earth.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - At last she sank down on one of the rocky steps of the acclivity.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Without the town, on the acclivity of Hymettus, there is a rocky recess which he pointed out to me as the spot where he would wish to repose."
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Alcan′tara (Ar., 'the bridge'), an ancient town and frontier fortress of Spain, on the Tagus, on a rocky acclivity, and enclosed by ancient walls.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various
