Literary notes about forms (AI summary)
The word "forms" appears in literature with a remarkable range of meanings, serving as a bridge between the concrete and the abstract. In classical poetry, for example, Homer employs “forms” to evoke the shifting and awe‐inspiring aspects of nature’s power (“dread in all its forms” [1]). By contrast, in technical treatises such as Lane’s Latin grammar texts, "forms" denotes specific linguistic structures and inflections [2, 3, 4]. Philosophers like Plato and Rousseau invoke "forms" to represent unchanging ideals and the very essence of beauty, justice, or even the natural order [5, 6, 7, 8]. Meanwhile, Darwin’s writing uses the term to highlight the diverse array of living entities that populate our world [9, 10, 11]. Across such varied contexts—from poetic imagery and grammatical precision to philosophical abstraction and scientific classification—"forms" demonstrates its versatile ability to capture both tangible and conceptual phenomena.
- By age unbroke!—but all-consuming care Destroys perhaps the strength that time would spare: Dire is the ocean, dread in all its forms!
— from The Odyssey by Homer - Nominative forms and vocative forms are often combined: as, dulcis amīce , H. E. 1, 7, 12, sweet friend .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - Other case forms of is are found in inscriptions, as follows: N. EIS , 124 B.C. G. E I VS ,
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - Also gender forms of adjectives in -i- ‘of two endings’ ( 630 ), except the ablative singular, which ends in -ī .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - Geometrical forms and arithmetical ratios furnish the laws according to which the world is created.
— from Meno by Plato - There they see the divine forms of justice, temperance, and the like, in their unchangeable beauty, but not without an effort more than human.
— from Meno by Plato - The final proof is supplied by a comparison of the perfect state with actual forms of government.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - I mean, I replied, that there appear to be as many forms of the soul as there are distinct forms of the State.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - During each of these years, over the whole world, the land and the water has been peopled by hosts of living forms.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Thus the appearance of new forms and the disappearance of old forms, both natural and artificial, are bound together.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - But in the course of time, the forms dominant in the highest degree, wherever produced, would tend everywhere to prevail.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin