Literary notes about pall (AI summary)
The term “pall” appears in literature in a variety of contexts, both literal and metaphorical. It is often used to describe a physical covering or cloth associated with death and mourning, as seen when a coffin is shrouded in a pall ([1], [2]) or when religious ceremonies emphasize the ceremonial passing of a pall ([3], [4]). At the same time, writers employ it to evoke an atmosphere of gloom or oppressive heaviness, as in descriptions of a dark, foreboding sky or a landscape steeped in melancholy ([5], [6], [7]). In other instances, the word extends its reach to metaphorically denote something that grows monotonous or loses its appeal over time ([8], [9]), and even serves as a geographical marker in urban settings, highlighting places of social or historical significance ([10], [11]).
- A coffin of the plainest materials, without pall or other covering, was borne by some of the villagers.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - He laid his hand upon the coffin, and mechanically adjusting the pall with which it was covered, motioned them onward.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - This year went Bishop Elfric to Rome, and received the pall of Pope John on the second day before the ides of November.
— from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - This year Archbishop Nothelm received the pall from the bishop of the Romans.
— from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - As darkness settled like a pall The eye would pierce in vain, The fireflies gemmed the bushes all, Like fiery drops of rain.
— from Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt - Nearer came the red glow, over the white pall which stretched into the darkness around me.
— from Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker - Next morning, a grey, cloudy, heavy sky hung like a funereal pall over the summit of the volcanic cone.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - Though he was composing splendid poetry, his long dialogue with Mother Nature was beginning to pall upon him.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - You soon realize that India is not beautiful; still there is an enchantment about it that is beguiling, and which does not pall.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain - And, at the auction in Pall-mall, who should they meet but Lord Orville.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney - We had reached Pall Mall as we talked, and were walking down it from the St. James's end.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
