Literary notes about ethereal (AI summary)
In literature, the term "ethereal" is frequently employed to evoke a sense of otherworldly beauty, delicate refinement, and spiritual transcendence. Authors use it to describe not only characters imbued with a light, delicate quality—at times almost celestial in their allure ([1], [2], [3])—but also to articulate moods and natural phenomena that seem to transcend the tangible world ([4], [5], [6]). In some instances, it conveys an impression of a refined soul or the intangible grace of an environment, as well as a subtle but poignant contrast to the material realm ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, "ethereal" serves as a powerful literary device to suggest that which is beautifully refined, elusive, and imbued with a higher, almost mystical essence.
- To live out in the wilds under one roof with that ethereal creature and not fall in love is beyond the power of man.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - It was an idealized Ruth he had loved, an ethereal creature of his own creating, the bright and luminous spirit of his love-poems.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - She was not less fair, perhaps, than she had been before; and the ethereal character of her beauty had only been increased by time.
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant - Her idea of love was more that of placid affection, serving the loved one softly in an atmosphere, flower-scented and dim-lighted, of ethereal calm.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - whose glory fills the ethereal throne, And all ye deathless powers!
— from The Iliad by Homer - Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake:— "Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven, Ethereal Virtues!
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - The Esquimaux believe that “the soul exhibits the same shape as the body it belongs to, but is of a more subtle and ethereal nature.”
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - Astral beings enjoy the ethereal music of the spheres and are entranced by the sight of all creation as exhaustless expressions of changing light.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - Yet there was nothing ethereal about it; all was real vitality, real warmth, real incarnation.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy