Literary notes about wake (AI summary)
The word “wake” in literature functions as a versatile force, oscillating between the literal act of rousing from sleep and a broader, often symbolic, connotation of stirring into awareness or action. It appears as a direct command to arouse someone from slumber—as when a character is urgently summoned to action or when a gentle call disrupts the quiet of night [1, 2, 3]—and also as a marker of the aftermath or trail left by an event, such as the lingering turbulence behind a moving ship or the residual impact of betrayal [4, 5]. Additionally, “wake” is employed metaphorically to evoke renewed consciousness or emotional shifts, be it a moment of stark realization in psychological introspection or the poetic emergence of renewed passion [6, 7]. This multiplicity of uses enriches its presence in literary works, imbuing the term with both a physical clarity and a mystic, meditative depth.
- Here, let one of the maids go down and wake Baily and tell him to go for Dr. Wilkins at once.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie - “Harry, wake up, my boy, the coal train is coming.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - Chapter 12 Waking up at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his companions.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Large quantities of bacon were trailed in the wake of the ship, to the great satisfaction (I must say) of the sharks.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - He felt the pain and the sting which treachery and deceit leave in their wake.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - Then tender love bade passion wake, And thus the fair Videhan spake: “What words are these that thou hast said?
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
