Literary notes about canopy (AI summary)
In literature, the word "canopy" is a versatile image that suggests both shelter and symbolism. It often describes a literal covering—a thick, interlocking mass of branches and leaves that shields characters from the harshness of nature ([1], [2])—or is employed to evoke the sumptuous elegance of a bed or throne, enhancing the sense of intimacy or regal ceremony ([3], [4]). At times, it takes on a more foreboding quality, as when a dark, ominous covering of smoke or night encroaches upon a setting ([5], [6]), while in other narratives it marks the grandeur of state or religious spectacle ([7], [8]). In each instance, the canopy enriches the scene with layered meaning, merging physical form with deep metaphorical resonance.
- A heavy tree spread a thick canopy above their heads, and the haze darkened slowly over the river.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - Tall trees, whose long arms interlocked each other, formed a canopy above them, so dense as to exclude the beams of the sun.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - Anne's bed had four pineapple posts and a pink canopy.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey - And, in the costly canopy o'er him set, Blazed the last diamond of the nameless king.
— from Idylls of the King by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson - The smoke used to bank itself in a dense billowy black canopy over the town, and hide the sky from view.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - The black canopy of night hung less than a yard above the glow of the charcoal.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - "A RICH CANOPY OF STATE" "BEGAN TO LAY ABOUT HIM" "LONG LIVE THE KING!”
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain - And Judith seeing Holofernes sitting under a canopy, which was woven of purple and gold, with emeralds and precious stones: 10:20.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete
