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Literary notes about heedlessly (AI summary)

In literature, the adverb "heedlessly" is used to characterize actions performed without due care or reflection, often conveying a sense of impulsiveness or reckless abandon. Authors employ it to illustrate a character’s thoughtless disregard for consequences—whether it is acting against established authority [1], stepping carelessly into danger [2], or behaving in an imprudent, unthinking manner during critical moments [3]. At times, it underscores a mechanical, automatic quality in behavior, as when someone moves on with no attention to the details of their surroundings [4] or neglects opportunities for deeper thought [5]. This nuanced deployment enriches narrative tone, imbuing scenes with a palpable tension between deliberate action and fatalistic, careless impulsivity.
  1. May nothing please me so greatly, Rhamnusian virgin, that I should act thus heedlessly against the will of those lords!
    — from The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus by Gaius Valerius Catullus
  2. Where the trail swung out and around a steep, rocky place, he left it and plunged heedlessly straight down the hill.
    — from The Lookout Man by B. M. Bower
  3. He rode on heedlessly and recklessly, as he did all things.
    — from The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum
  4. Instead, he walked on heedlessly, mechanically, toward the city.
    — from The Web of Life by Robert Herrick
  5. I left them heedlessly, thinking only of him and the life of enjoyment I was going to.
    — from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 699May 19, 1877 by Various

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