Literary notes about wet (AI summary)
Authors deploy the word "wet" to evoke both tangible sensations and complex emotions, ranging from the physical to the metaphorical. In narratives, it describes literal conditions such as falling snow or rain-soaked landscapes that heighten atmosphere and realism, as seen when Dostoyevsky depicts wet snow [1] or Kipling conjures a realm of wet wild woods [2]. Simultaneously, "wet" conveys emotional states—tears that glisten in moments of despair [3, 4] or the damp evidence of human exertion [5]—providing insight into characters’ inner turmoil and vulnerability. The term also finds its way into varied symbolic gestures, whether in the cleansing of a cross [6] or an admonition not to let garments become wet [7], thus underlining its versatility in bridging the external natural world with the intimate realm of human experience [8, 9].
- The wet snow was falling in big flakes; I unbuttoned myself, regardless of it.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Next night Cat walked through the Wet Wild Woods and hid very near the Cave till morning-time, and Man and Dog and Horse went hunting.
— from Just so stories by Rudyard Kipling - His face was wet with a sudden gush of tears.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I wet the pillow, my arms, and my hair, with rushing tears.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - His forehead beneath the hat was wet with the beads of unaccustomed climbing.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim - I saw her kiss the white cross, then kneel down before the inscription, and apply her wet cloth to the cleansing of it.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - " "Yea, good father," said Robin, "but thou seest that my clothes are of the finest and I fain would not get them wet.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle - It is difficult enough to fix a tent in dry weather: in wet, the task becomes herculean.
— from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome - 20 Fowl of the Heavens, and Fish that through the wet Sea-paths in shoals do slide.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton
