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Literary notes about frost (AI summary)

The word “frost” in literature serves a dual role, functioning both as a concrete reference to the seasonal chill and as a rich metaphor for emotional or metaphysical states. In some works, it is used literally to describe the damaging cold that affects crops, trees, or even the human body—as seen when it injures orchards ([1]) or when the chill compels characters to alter their actions ([2], [3]). In other writings, frost assumes a more symbolic or personified quality, evoking images of decay, transformation, or even artistic creation; it sometimes appears as an almost sentient force that “cracks” and “snaps” its cold fingers among the fir trees ([4]), or is compared to a force that renders vibrant beauty into a state of fragile, frozen suspension ([5], [6]). Moreover, authors occasionally draw on mythic or allegorical dimensions, linking frost with cold-heartedness or the inexorable advance of time ([7], [8], [9]), thereby enriching the narrative with layers of natural and emotional complexity.
  1. They have not been frost injured at any time in the spring.
    — from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting
  2. I wanted to run away to the village, but I have no boots, and I am afraid of the frost.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  3. When the first frost threatens to come, the planters snatch off their crops in a hurry.
    — from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
  4. Now, a good way off, Frost had begun cracking, snapping his fingers, and leaping from fir to fir.
    — from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
  5. Big, white drifts heaped themselves about the little house, and palms of frost covered its windows.
    — from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery
  6. It was moon-light, and the earth sparkled With new-fallen frost.
    — from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
  7. Death lies on her like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  8. The frost, the snows, the tempests, the lightnings are the rough teachers that bring the tiny acorn to the sturdy oak.
    — from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
  9. Why, what’s the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness? CLAUDIO.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

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