Literary notes about canvas (AI summary)
The term “canvas” in literature displays a remarkable versatility, being employed both in literal and metaphorical senses. Poets and novelists alike have used it as a stage upon which history and emotion are painted—Walt Whitman famously describes the “crowded canvas of the Nineteenth Century” to evoke the epic sweep of history [1], while Edgar Allan Poe’s imagery spreads emotional hues drawn “from the cheeks” of a companion [2, 3]. At the same time, “canvas” readily lends itself to descriptions of everyday materiality: from the worn canvas of an easel or sail [4, 5, 6] and practical items like bags and tents [7, 8, 9, 10] to its role in ephemeral artistic endeavors, as seen in the paintings of Oscar Wilde’s characters [11, 12, 13, 14]. Authors also use canvas as a metaphor for the fabric of life itself, suggesting that our experiences and the passage of time are like images rendered upon a vast, unyielding surface [15, 16, 17]. This dual usage not only enriches the narrative texture but also underlines the canvas’s symbolic resonance as both medium and message.
- Abraham Lincoln seems to me the grandest figure yet, on all the crowded canvas of the Nineteenth Century.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - And he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sate beside him.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - And he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sate beside him.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - He went to the back of the easel, on which there was a canvas representing a cat, and seized a very worn-out broom.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - A single triangular sail, of strong canvas, was hoisted as a storm-jib, so as to hold the wind from behind.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - A few minutes afterwards, the schooner started before the wind, under all the canvas she could carry, and entered the channel.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - He then unpacked his chest, putting all his valuable clothes into a large canvas bag, and told one of us, who had the watch, to call him at midnight.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - Here Bob emptied the canvas bag on the table.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - But in the end he lugged a dirty canvas bag out of the depths of his trouser pocket, and counted out six shillings and sixpence into Toad’s paw.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - He had carried under his arm a canvas bag, containing a suit of his clothes.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - A feeling of pain came over him as he thought of the desecration that was in store for the fair face on the canvas.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the canvas could grow bestial, sodden, and unclean.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - His own soul was looking out at him from the canvas and calling him to judgment.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - An exclamation of horror broke from Hallward's lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous thing on the canvas leering at him.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - No such paradises are to be found in reality as have glowed on the canvas of Claude.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - He comes to endow the mountains with a function, and takes them at that, as a painter might take his brushes and canvas.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Social events constitute the canvas which she embroiders, which she arranges, and which give her a subject for conversation.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 by Emperor of the French Napoleon I
