Literary notes about discordant (AI summary)
In literature, "discordant" is often used to suggest a clash or a break in what might otherwise be harmonious elements. It can refer literally to sounds—a jarring clang or a stray note that disrupts a melody ([1], [2], [3])—or serve as a metaphor for incompatible ideas or conflicting forces in a narrative. At times, authors evoke "discordant" sensations to heighten the tension in chaotic environments or to underscore the inner turmoil of characters, as when a harsh, unsettling quality is woven into descriptions of both nature and society ([4], [5], [6]). This word thus enriches literary expression by emphasizing the disordered, unbalanced, or antagonistic aspects of sound, emotion, or social structure.
- In the courtly scene, no one has his ears offended with loud and discordant tones, no one is condemned to absolute silence.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness by Cecil B. Hartley - Just at this moment, the bells set up their harsh, discordant clang; and the procession moved into the court.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - The piano gave forth a discordant crash.
— from The Silver Horde by Rex Beach - So the thinker will have to order his life with them as its chief determinants, or else remain inwardly discordant and unhappy.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - What eloquence could unite so many discordant and hostile powers under the same standard?
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Love, in alternation due, Still the cycle doth renew, And discordant strife is driven From the starry realm of heaven.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
