Literary notes about goad (AI summary)
The word "goad" carries a complex range of meanings in literature, serving both as a tangible instrument to spur animals into action and as a metaphor for provoking human behavior. In many texts, it denotes the physical tool employed by drivers or warriors—as seen in depictions of charioteers and animal drivers [1], [2], [3]—while in others it represents a psychological stimulus that incites anger, ambition, or rebellion [4], [5], [6]. Authors use the goad as a symbol of authority and control, evoking images of societal and internal forces that drive characters to act, as in the allusion to defiance against imposed burdens [7] and the emblematic pressures of power [8], [9]. Thus, the term weaves together literal and figurative depictions of coercion and motivation, enriching narratives with its layered significance [10], [11].
- 1 "Ply the goad on the horses," said he.
— from The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge - The charioteer drove a goad into the horses.
— from The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge - A horse-whip, very fine and golden in his hand, and a light-grey cloak wrapped around him, and a goad of white silver in his hand.
— from The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge - But that terror was just the goad they needed to make them fight.
— from The Highest Treason by Randall Garrett - Then Osborne had the intolerable sense of former benefits to goad and irritate him: these are always a cause of hostility aggravated.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - 'Then soberly and plainly, Mortimer, I goad the schoolmaster to madness.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - As their own proverb says:—The Vellālar’s goad is the ruler’s sceptre.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston - And the goad which drives it on thus eagerly is not an affectation for futurity Futurity does not exist, because it is still future.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton - Well, keep all things so in thy mind, that they may be as a goad in thy sides, to prick thee forward in the way thou must go.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan - but with honest zeal, To rouse the watchmen of the public weal; To virtue’s work provoke the tardy hall, And goad the prelate slumbering in his stall.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope
