Literary notes about blaze (AI summary)
The word “blaze” serves as a multifaceted symbol in literature, evoking both the physical brightness of fire and metaphorical expressions of passion, conflict, and transformation. It appears in gentle, domestic scenes where the warming glow of a hearth revives and comforts a weary traveler ([1]), while in other contexts it ignites the fury of battle or the fervor of inner emotion ([2], [3]). Authors extend its range further by aligning a blaze with vibrant celebrations of nature’s wonders as well as the incandescence of human ambition, from the crackling bonfires that animate communal festivities ([4]) to the brilliant displays that mark scholarly or heroic achievement ([5], [6]). Ultimately, “blaze” is deployed as a vivid, dynamic image that stimulates both the senses and the imagination.
- 'This is an hospitable hearth,' said he, 'the blaze of a fire is reviving after having wandered so long in these dreary wilds.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe - Are you considering some matter that concerns the Trojans and Achaeans—for the blaze of battle is on the point of being kindled between them?"
— from The Iliad by Homer - One would have said that with the wine fire was poured into his soul; so did his face flame, so did his eye blaze.
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - On the eve of the festival huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - He came into the school as my coequal, but he left far above me, in a blaze of scholarships and brilliant performance.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - At the end of the year left hospital in a blaze of glory.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
