Literary notes about phosphorescence (AI summary)
Writers have long embraced the word "phosphorescence" to evoke an ambience that dances between the natural and the supernatural. In some works, such as James Joyce's "Ulysses" [1], the term captures a peculiar blue-green glow that hints at the strangeness of everyday life, while in Edgar Allan Poe's narratives [2, 3, 4, 5] it often underscores an eerie, otherworldly quality amid darkness. Jules Verne and H. G. Wells similarly use phosphorescence to punctuate moments of intense mystery and illumination in otherwise impenetrable darkness [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Meanwhile, Chekhov’s evocative scenes [11, 12] illustrate how the term can also lend a transient, natural beauty to fleeting moments along the ocean or in the urban nightscape. In these varied contexts, phosphorescence becomes a powerful literary device, linking the interplay of light and darkness to themes of mystery, nature, and existential wonder.
- The phosphorescence, that bluey greeny.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - (*13) In mines and natural caves we find a species of cryptogamous fungus that emits an intense phosphorescence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - As the sun went down, the gale freshened into an absolute hurricane, and the ocean beneath was clearly visible on account of its phosphorescence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - As the sun went down, the gale freshened into an absolute hurricane, and the ocean beneath was clearly visible on account of its phosphorescence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - (*13) In mines and natural caves we find a species of cryptogamous fungus that emits an intense phosphorescence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Sometimes I tried to pierce the intense darkness that was only dispelled by the phosphorescence caused by our movements.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - And I saw far above the Hand, towards the apex of the darkness, a circle of dim phosphorescence, a ghostly sphere
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - As it got darker I began to see all manner of glowing things in the water— phosphorescence, you know.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - Now I can account for this phosphorescence in the supposed narwhal that puzzled us so.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - I hardly knew which was stars and which was phosphorescence, and whether I was swimming on my head or my heels.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - From the boulevard they went back to the pavilion and walked along the beach, and looked for a long time at the phosphorescence on the water.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - " The two soldiers looked at the white foam gleaming with phosphorescence.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
