Literary notes about blight (AI summary)
The word "blight" in literature often carries a dual significance, serving as both a literal affliction and a metaphor for corruption or decay. In mythic narratives, for instance, it represents divine punishment that leads to famine and the ruin of harvests [1]. Conversely, in scientific or agricultural contexts it denotes a veritable disease that ravages orchards, forests, and crops [2, 3, 4]. Additionally, many novelists harness the term to articulate the detrimental impact of moral and social decay—for example, characterizing a person as a ruinous influence or suggesting that hope and beauty are marred by an unseen curse [5, 6, 7]. Whether describing the destructive force of a natural epidemic or illustrating the corrosive effect on human relationships and aspirations, "blight" remains a richly evocative term that unifies themes of physical deterioration and internal desolation [8, 9].
- The favour of Demeter was believed to bring mankind rich harvests and fruitful crops, whereas her displeasure caused blight, drought, and famine.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens - The blight has spread into Tessin Province in southeastern Switzerland where it is destroying many of the orchards and forest trees.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - The main problem facing all chestnut culture in Europe is the rapid spread of the chestnut blight.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - In general : Ceylon's coffees are no longer the commercial factor they were before the coffee blight practically destroyed the industry.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - If the likeness of that face don’t turn to burning fire, at the thought of offering money to me for my child’s blight and ruin, it’s as bad.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Dixon had always considered Mr. Hale as the blight which had fallen upon her young lady's prospects in life.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire: it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - The blight of futility that lies in wait for men’s speeches had fallen upon our conversation, and made it a thing of empty sounds.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - You have been the blight of my life; you stole from me my bride, and now you would rob me of my honour.”
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli
