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Literary notes about canorous (AI summary)

The term "canorous" is employed to evoke a sense of melodious, resonant quality that transcends mere sound description in literature. Authors use it to infuse natural imagery with musicality—as when a rooster’s crow is likened to a horn’s resonant call [1] or an engine’s roar attains an almost symphonic presence [2]. In other contexts, it deepens character portrayal by lending a voice a richly textured, almost caressing quality [3], while also painting entire scenes with its sonorous magic, as in depictions of a city's evocative night [4] or a language imbued with perpetual rhythm [5]. Even when contrasted with sounds that are graceful yet not sonorous [6] or rendered through dramatic, wind-carried notes [7, 8], the word "canorous" consistently enhances the auditory imagery, imbuing the narrative with a refined, enchanting elegance [9, 10, 11].
  1. There is a more canorous and horn-like quality to the crowing of Gildersleeve's rooster, and his hens chant cheerily as they kick the litter about.
    — from Back Home by Eugene Wood
  2. His engines had frightened her with their canorous roar.
    — from The Trail of '98: A Northland Romance by Robert W. (Robert William) Service
  3. Her voice was low, canorous, quaintly caressing.
    — from Mrs. Fitz by J. C. (John Collis) Snaith
  4. But the other Paris, the Paris of the canorous night, the Paris of the Parisians!
    — from Europe After 8:15 by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
  5. —Here is a great deal of talk about rhythm—and naturally; for in our canorous language rhythm is always at the door.
    — from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 16 by Robert Louis Stevenson
  6. Some are graceful and smooth, however, and are canorous though never sonorous.
    — from Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
  7. Cried we, "Our troubles are o'er!" Then, like a rumble of thunder, heard we a canorous roar.
    — from Ballads of a Cheechako by Robert W. (Robert William) Service
  8. In a twinkling his rifle was at his shoulder, and through the wild canorous note of the wind, Stane caught his hail.
    — from A Mating in the Wilds by Ottwell Binns
  9. Astounding, canorous, enchanting, alembicated and dramatic, the Chopin studies are exemplary essays in emotion and manner.
    — from Chopin : the Man and His Music by James Huneker
  10. In short, the word was there—it was canorous, and it expressed just what I meant.
    — from James Russell Lowell, A Biography; vol 2/2 by Horace Elisha Scudder
  11. She would solicit thus, canorous of phrase, a fan of her cardboard likenesses held out, invitational.
    — from Humoresque: A Laugh on Life with a Tear Behind It by Fannie Hurst

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