Literary notes about taper (AI summary)
In literature, “taper” primarily designates a slender candle that casts a gentle, ephemeral light, evoking moods of intimacy, reflection, and sometimes melancholy. Its burning presence enhances scenes by providing both physical illumination and symbolic insight into the fleeting nature of time or hope, as when a feeble taper light reveals subtle expressions in moments of quiet contemplation ([1], [2], [3]). Moreover, the term also conveys a sense of gradual narrowing—a physical tapering seen in structural descriptions that suggest both decay and graceful precision ([4], [5]). In a few instances, “Taper” even appears as a proper name, lending an unexpected, almost whimsical character to the text ([6], [7]).
- To my misfortune I yielded to it, showing her to him one night by the light of a taper at a window where we used to talk to one another.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - Again, after a blank moment, there would be a flickering taper-gleam in his eyeballs.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - I fairly held my breath a minute, and even from my glimmering taper there was light enough to show how he smiled up at me from his pillow.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - He had twelve rattles, but they were broken off before they began to taper, so I insisted that he must once have had twenty-four.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - Some have parallel sides, others taper or expand towards the top.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - “It will never do to throw over the Church Commission,” said Mr Taper.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - “There is such a person as Lord Durham in the world,” said Mr Taper very solemnly.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli
