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Literary notes about changes (AI summary)

The term “changes” in literature is remarkably versatile, functioning both as a descriptor of gradual transformations and as a marker for sudden shifts in form, fortune, or perception. In religious and classical texts, for example, it captures shifts of time and nature, as seen in depictions of seasons and life's cycles [1], [2], [3]. In narrative works, “changes” can illustrate character development or alterations in mood and circumstance—from the subtle modifications in personal well-being or relationships [4], [5], [6] to dramatic reversals of fate [7], [8]. Moreover, in linguistic and grammatical contexts, the word is employed to denote technical modifications and editing processes, underscoring its precision in both abstract and concrete realms [9], [10], [11]. Whether highlighting natural metamorphosis, societal evolution, or the minutiae of structural alterations, “changes” consistently serves as a bridge linking the inexorable flow of time and circumstance with the intimate process of transformation.
  1. During so long a residence I witnessed, of course, many changes in the place.
    — from The King James Version of the Bible
  2. And so to these four changes of the seasons we attribute the origin and cause of all the productions both of sea and land.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  3. The cycle of natural changes goes its perpetual round and the ploughman's mind, caught in that narrow vortex, plods and plods after the seasons.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  4. In the course of a few years after their marriage changes began to be visible in the external prosperity of Reuben and Dorcas.
    — from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  5. There have been sad changes, since you went away.
    — from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
  6. "The joys come close upon the sorrows this time, and I rather think the changes have begun," said Mrs. March.
    — from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott
  7. [148] changes of fortune.
    — from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens
  8. Thus the changes of fortune brought the empire of Denmark under the Swedish rule.
    — from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo
  9. oe , diphthong, pronunciation of, 47 , 49 ; changes of, 99 .
    — from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane
  10. A word or group of words that changes or modifies the meaning of another word is called a modifier ( § 19 ).
    — from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge
  11. If the verb is active, change it to the passive, and make such other changes as may be necessary.
    — from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge

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