Literary notes about blow (AI summary)
The term “blow” functions with remarkable versatility in literature, serving simultaneously as a description of physical violence, a metaphor for sudden change, and as a personification of natural force. It is often used to denote a literal strike or impact, as seen when characters suffer deadly or stunning hits ([1], [2], [3]), while in other instances it reflects the metaphorical weight of fate or misfortune—a crushing setback that alters destinies ([4], [5]). In epic and poetic contexts the word takes on a grander scale, representing the driving winds that move ships or shape landscapes ([6], [7]), thereby merging natural imagery with human experience. This array of applications underscores the term’s capacity to evoke both tangible action and abstract, symbolic meaning within narratives.
- The Simpleton grew angry, dealt him a blow with his hatchet, and struck him dead.
— from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore - I received so violent a blow from the head of one of them, just in the back of the neck, that for a few minutes I was stunned and insensible.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - Then quickly and with a dainty backhanded blow, he rapped Eric beneath his guard so shrewdly that it made his head ring again.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle - “Yes, sir, it is a crushing blow,” said the old man.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - And yet there is no doubt that the sudden discovery of her secret would have been terrible—would have been a fatal blow for her.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - "'You will want no guide,' she answered; 'raise your mast, set your white sails, sit quite still, and the North Wind will blow you there of itself.
— from The Odyssey by Homer - And after the Wind-god had said this, a floral shower fell there and the celestial kettle-drum began to play, and auspicious breezes began to blow.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
