Literary notes about shed (AI summary)
The word “shed” reveals a rich versatility in literature, functioning both in its literal sense of releasing or casting something and as a potent metaphor. Authors frequently employ it to convey the act of releasing blood in scenes laden with violence or sacrificial meaning ([1], [2], [3], [4]), and similarly to evoke deep emotion through the shedding of tears ([5], [6], [7], [8]). It also extends to the figurative realm, where light is shed to illuminate hidden truths or to transform dark settings into moments of revelation ([9], [10], [11], [12]). Meanwhile, “shed” appears as a noun, denoting humble outbuildings which serve as evocative settings that enhance the atmosphere or underscore a turning point ([13], [14], [15]). Even in descriptions of natural processes, such as a lizard shedding its skin ([16]), the term encapsulates change and renewal. This multifaceted usage enriches the narrative, providing both vivid imagery and deeper thematic resonance throughout diverse literary works.
- Yes, his enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - And God said to me: Thou shalt not build a house to my name: because thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets: and thou hast given them blood to drink.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through covetousness.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - He was terribly overwhelmed; he shed tears.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - So, Mrs. Kenwigs first slapped Miss Kenwigs for being the cause of her vexation, and then shed tears.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - This fragment was not without some fire, which I increased by my manner of reading, and made them all three shed tears.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - He sank into the chair, and brooded over the embers, and shed tears.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - It was on this famous barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, now fallen into profound obscurity, that we are about to shed a little light.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - The last light of the sun was shed over the Moor when Gerard reached it, and the Druids’ altar and its surrounding crags were burnished with its beam.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - She lay awake viewing her situation in the crude light which Rosedale's visit had shed on it.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - The faint beams of a solitary Lamp darted upon Matilda's figure, and shed through the chamber a dim mysterious light.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. Lewis - I crossed the room after him, and we found ourselves in a sort of vast shed, lighted by one candle.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - Rennet Cousin went in search of the chest of tools for the night man, under the shed of the Pillar-House.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - A boy came towards them, running along under the shed.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - It should here be explained that both lizards and snakes at various intervals shed the outer layer of their skin, the so-called epidermis.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America
