Literary notes about blighted (AI summary)
The word "blighted" is often used to conjure images of decay and ruin, both in the natural world and within the human spirit. In some works, it describes physical deterioration—a blossom withered by time and neglect, or a tree marked by stunted growth and damaged bark ([1], [2])—while in others it encapsulates the corruption of hope and the marred essence of character, as seen when ambitions, happiness, or reputations are irreversibly tarnished ([3], [4], [5]). Authors extend its reach to landscapes and societies, evoking scenes of desolation and despair where the once-rich promise of life has been ruined by external circumstances or internal failings ([6], [7]). Through these varied applications, "blighted" serves as a potent metaphor for loss and the inevitable decline that echoes through both nature and human endeavor.
- The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Blighted trees send up shoots from the base, below the blighted bark.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Had she not deceived me, injured me—blighted my happiness for life?
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - I am simply blighted—like a damaged ear of corn—the business is done and can't be undone.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - I felt that my reputation for accuracy was blighted, and sought consolation from the editor of a Gladstonian organ who happened to be present.
— from The Real Gladstone: An Anecdotal Biography by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie - There was the same thick air, difficult to breathe; the same blighted ground, the same hopeless prospect, the same misery and distress.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - "To think that I was such a fool!" "'Tis because we be on a blighted star, and not a sound one, isn't it, Tess?" murmured Abraham through his tears.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy
