Literary notes about canary (AI summary)
In literature, "canary" takes on a myriad of symbolic and descriptive roles that enrich the texture of a narrative. Often, its vibrant hue is employed to evoke warmth, beauty, and even ethereal quality, as in the depiction of gas-lamps glimmering a canary gold or green [1] and instances where characters are likened to the bright, delicate bird [2]. Its song and fragile presence further serve as metaphors for vulnerability and a yearning for freedom, as seen when a canary calls tenderly to its offspring [3]. Additionally, the term is sometimes extended metaphorically to represent traits such as timidity or betrayal, where a person might be compared to a canary, highlighting a duality of innocence and precariousness within human character.
- Electric lights sizzled and jagged in the main thoroughfares, gas-lamps in the side streets glimmered a canary gold or green.
— from Howards End by E. M. Forster - They had spared nothing, neither columns, nor cornices, and my poor little friend was as yellow as a canary.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - and a Canary called out in a trembling voice to its children "Come away, my dears!
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
