Literary notes about light (AI summary)
The word “light” in literature is imbued with a wealth of meanings, shifting seamlessly between the literal and the symbolic. Often it denotes literal illumination—the glow of a sun or lantern that reveals hidden details in a landscape ([1], [2])—and at the same time, it stands as a potent symbol of insight, hope, and spiritual guidance, as when a candle’s flame is set forth to dispel darkness and reveal truth ([3]). Authors use light to evoke life and purity, suggesting divine presence or the spark of reason, much like the sun as the giver of life and understanding ([4], [5]). This duality allows light to serve as both a physical presence and a metaphorical beacon that highlights virtue, faith, or even intellectual clarity across narratives ([6], [7]).
- The light permeated by that peculiar evening haze, right after sunset, which sometimes renders quite distant objects so distinctly.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - A lantern on the boulevard cast a vague light into this poor room.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - No man lighteth a candle and putteth it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel: but upon a candlestick, that they that come in may see the light.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - The sun is life as well as light to all that is on the earth—as we of the present day know even better than they of old.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - Then now comes the question,—How shall we create our rulers; what way is there from darkness to light?
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night: which light is God, our endless Day.
— from Revelations of Divine Love - Although the Christians of America are divided into a multitude of sects, they all look upon their religion in the same light.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville
