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Literary notes about indite (AI summary)

Writers employ "indite" to evoke a sense of deliberate, artful composition, often reserving it for formal letter-writing, epic declarations, or poetic musings. It implies more than casual writing, suggesting instead a refined, thoughtful act of putting ideas to paper. In one work, the term underscores the measured care taken by a character drafting a formal circular [1], while in another it conveys the poet’s struggle to capture ineffable emotions [2]. At times, "indite" serves to contrast the act of writing with other forms of communication, as when it is used to illustrate the unique, almost ritualistic quality of composing verses or epistles [3] [4].
  1. And with what quill did the Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Ganders formally indite his circulars?
    — from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville
  2. My soul shall drink its radiance; it shall be diffused throughout my intellectual powers and gleam brightly in every line of poesy that I indite.
    — from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  3. Accept my ardent vows, and what I write: The subject suits you that I here indite.
    — from The Fables of La Fontaine by Jean de La Fontaine
  4. But, if so, Mercury, then I, who am a poet, must indite his love-letter; and you, who are by trade a porter, must convey it.
    — from Dryden's Works Vol. 08 (of 18) by John Dryden

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