Literary notes about desolation (AI summary)
The term "desolation" is frequently used in literature to evoke an atmosphere of abject ruin and profound loneliness, whether in describing barren landscapes or the inner emotional despair of a character. In some works, it emphasizes the stark, unyielding nature of a ruined physical environment—from isolated, windswept beaches and abandoned cities ([1], [2]) to the aftermath of war or divine judgment ([3], [4])—while in others, it becomes a powerful symbol of personal grief and inner disintegration ([5], [6], [7]). This dual usage enables authors to mirror both the external devastation of societies and the internal collapse of human spirit, lending a dramatic and often cautionary tone to their narratives ([8], [9], [10]).
- There seemed no road to it from anywhere, and to increase the desolation the waves of a tarn lapped on their grey granite beach half a mile away.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - And a silence quite as suggestive as the visible desolation was in the voiceless streets that no longer echoed to carriage-wheel or footfall.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - The progress of desolation by sea and land, from the Euxine to the Isle of Cyprus, compelled the emperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty defiance.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart. 12:12.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - As she took off her hat in the bedroom, she found herself weeping bitterly, with some of the old, anguished, childish desolation.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - A desolation fell over me one morning at thought of separation from my family.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - “But I can never forgive the misery and desolation your madness has occasioned,” continued Rowena.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - In the West, the Roman empire was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, and the conquests of the Persians.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The language of science, of business, and of conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was lost in the general desolation.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - We might lose our selfish grief in the sublime aspect of its desolation.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
