Literary notes about stately (AI summary)
Literary works often use “stately” to imbue both characters and settings with a sense of nobility, grandeur, and timeless dignity. Authors describe dignified individuals—whether it’s a tall, imposing gentleman with a measured gait ([1], [2]) or a refined lady offering a gracious welcome ([3], [4])—to suggest inherent strength and elegance. At the same time, surrounding architectures and nature are frequently portrayed as stately, from a majestic pleasure-dome decreed in Xanadu ([5]) to palatial mansions and ancient cathedrals that evoke the weight of history and the serenity of order ([6], [7]). Even in depictions of the natural world, stately trees or processions lend an aura of elevated beauty and calm formality ([8], [9]). In this way, “stately” functions as a multifaceted descriptor that enhances the reader’s experience by merging visual splendor with an underlying sense of gracious dignity.
- He was a tall, stately man, distinguished in appearance, and of a serious and calm temperament.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner - O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye: Our Empress' shame and stately Rome's disgrace!
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - To this lady he presented me as his mother, and she gave me a stately welcome.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Mrs. Rouncewell, drawing up her stately form, shakes her head at the old girl with a swelling pride upon her, as much as to say, "I told you so!"
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.
— from Familiar QuotationsA Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced toTheir Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature - I looked with timorous joy towards a stately house: I saw a blackened ruin.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - The stately buildings of Constantinople, &c., may be quoted as a lasting and unexceptionable proof of the profuseness of their founder.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - There stately trees can scarce uphold The burthen of their fruits of gold, And ever flaunt their gay attire Of flower and leaf like flames of fire.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - It sometimes appears as a stately flambeau, stalking along unsupported, burning with a ghastly blue flame.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes
