Literary notes about devastation (AI summary)
The term devastation is deployed in literature as both a stark literal account of physical ruin and a powerful metaphor for emotional or societal collapse. Chroniclers recount vast territorial and historical ruin—recording the destruction of landscapes and cities through war and conquest, as seen in accounts of historical conflicts that left regions decimated and peoples suffering [1], [2], [3]. At the same time, writers evoke devastation to illustrate inner desolation or to underscore the profound impact of loss, transforming tangible destruction into a symbol of moral and spiritual decay [4], [5]. Whether depicting the aftermath of catastrophic natural events or the brutalities of battle—with imagery ranging from shattered forests to ruined urban landscapes—the word resonates as a multi-layered expression of irreversible transformation and sorrow, reminding readers of the transient nature of human endeavors and the inevitable waning of even the grandest of creations [6], [7].
- After a brief allusion to West Saxon history, the devastation of Kent by Ethelred of Mercia in 676, and
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Saint the Venerable Bede - This siege was one of the last incidents in a war which for wellnigh twenty years wrought devastation throughout the southern provinces of France.
— from A Tour Through Old Provence by A. S. (Archibald Stevenson) Forrest - 142 The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - When Loth's wife, his bride in the city, heard the din of fire, the death of the people, then she looked back- ward [to see] this devastation.
— from Genesis ATranslated from the Old English - In that devastation, in the utter nakedness of spirit, let us become one in beauty.
— from The gardener by Rabindranath Tagore - The devastation consummated along the route traversed by the river of lava was complete and incalculable.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - Such was the nature of the calamity, and heavily did it weigh on the Athenians; death raging within the city and devastation without.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
