Literary notes about sublime (AI summary)
In literature, "sublime" captures an elusive quality that elevates ordinary experiences to moments of grandeur and profound insight. Romantic verse speaks of lives becoming sublime through the heroic acts and enduring legacies of great men [1], while historical narratives compare the power of genius with the sublime qualities of legendary leaders [2]. Philosophical treatises analyze how vast dimensions and the overwhelming force of nature inspire a sense of the sublime [3] and even evoke a bittersweet pain [4]. At the same time, the term finds a more intimate resonance in character and emotion—a sublime smile or an unshakeable trust [5]—emphasizing not only the vast and majestic but also the quietly transcendent. This multifaceted use of the word weaves together aesthetics, morality, and the ineffable, enriching literary portrayals of both human endeavor and natural phenomena.
- Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
— from McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey - His genius was less powerful and sublime than that of Caesar; nor did he possess the consummate prudence of Augustus.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Greatness [17] of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - The objects of nature, he continues, which we call sublime, inspire us with a feeling of pain rather than of pleasure; as Lucretius has it— Me
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant - But she smiled on him with that sublime smile in which two teeth were lacking.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
