Literary notes about fevered (AI summary)
The term "fevered" in literature evokes states of both physical and emotional intensity, blurring the lines between literal sickness and fevered passion or agitation. Often, it describes a heightened state of bodily heat and distress—as seen when characters bathe a fevered face in cold water to alleviate a burning condition ([1], [2]) or when fevered brains and flushed bodies betray overwhelming emotion and stress ([3], [4]). At other times, it operates metaphorically to suggest a state of tumultuous inner feeling, as with fevered eyes that reflect a split of rage and suspicion ([5]) or a fevered soul consumed by dreams and unbridled hope ([6], [7]). Authors use the word to connect visceral physical sensations with inner psychological unrest, thereby intensifying the immediacy of their narrative.
- She bathed her fevered face in cold water, then she walked up to her mirror.
— from Jacqueline — Volume 1 by Th. Bentzon - He was tired and exhausted in consequence; his hands burned, his lips were parched, his brow fevered.
— from Two Little Travellers A Story for Girls by Frances Browne Arthur - He was delirious most of the time, but there were intervals when his fevered brain partly recovered its balance and he asked for Ruth.
— from The Secret of the Reef by Harold Bindloss - But to the fevered head on which that cool air blew, it seemed to come laden with remorse for time misspent and countless opportunities neglected.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - And she glared at Cousin Egbert with rage and distrust splitting fifty-fifty in her fevered eyes.
— from Somewhere in Red Gap by Harry Leon Wilson - This fevered hope had grown up again like a grain of mustard-seed during the quiet which followed the hasty conjecture that Troy was drowned.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - O, beautiful!—most beautiful—how like To what my fevered soul doth dream of Heaven!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
