Literary notes about encompassing (AI summary)
The term "encompassing" in literary language operates on both literal and metaphorical levels. It can denote the physical wrapping or bordering of an object or space, as in the portrayal of walls or natural barriers that encircle a given area [1][2][3]. At the same time, the word often conveys a sense of completeness or totality in emotional or conceptual realms, suggesting profound feelings or forces that surround a character or situation—whether it be an all-encompassing sympathy, a global process, or even the pervasive influence of nature [4][5][6]. This dual capacity to evoke both tangible boundaries and expansive, abstract experiences makes "encompassing" a versatile tool in the descriptive arsenal of literature.
- It was enclosed by walls twenty feet high and four feet thick, encompassing an area two hundred and fifty feet long by two hundred wide.
— from The Great Salt Lake Trail by Henry Inman - RYE A conical hill rises abruptly out of the encompassing marshes, and all around that little hill, wherever it can gain secure hold, clings the town.
— from Hastings and Neighbourhood by Walter Higgins - It was a large room, whose windows were half darkened by the encompassing pines which still pressed around the house on the scantily cleared site.
— from Openings in the Old Trail by Bret Harte - Here she was, an old woman now, worn to the point of breaking, yet vital, as ever, with the flame of an encompassing sympathy.
— from What a Man Wills by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs. - But after all is done and said, these are only particular aspects of a much more encompassing process.
— from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin - His kinship with encompassing nature was so close that it touched him on every side.
— from The Secret Life: Being the Book of a Heretic by Elizabeth Bisland
