Literary notes about relieve (AI summary)
Across literary works, "relieve" is employed in a diverse array of contexts, serving both practical and emotional functions. At times, it describes the act of physically removing or transferring burdens, as when Twain speaks of diverting river waters to ease flood conditions ([1]) or when military duties are exchanged in strategic shifts ([2], [3]). In other instances, the word conveys alleviation of internal or emotional distress—whether relieving a heart weighed down by sorrow ([4], [5]) or easing the tension of an uneasy moment ([6], [7]). Additionally, authors use it to denote the liberation from duties or obligations, as seen in exchanges of trust and responsibility ([8], [9]). This multifaceted usage underscores its capacity to evoke both tangible relief and abstract consolation in literature.
- Some believed in the scheme to relieve the river, in flood-time, by turning its surplus waters off into Lake Borgne, etc. 5.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - I was ordered to take post at St. Louis, and to relieve Captain A. J. Smith, First Dragoons, who had been acting in that capacity for some months.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - So it goes until it is eight bells,—call the watch,—heave the log,—relieve the wheel, and go below the larboard watch.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - she said; “it would relieve the burning weight at my heart.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - I know thou doom'st me to despair, Nor wilt, nor canst relieve me; But, O Eliza, hear one prayer— For pity's sake forgive me!
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - If you really wish me well, you will relieve this excitement.”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - I am not wilfully trying your patience—I should only be adding to your suspense, if I attempted to relieve it as things are now.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - 'I will relieve him of his trust,' returned Eugene.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - I had many times and again struggled to relieve myself of the trouble on my mind, but I couldn't get it off.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens