Literary notes about imminent (AI summary)
The word "imminent" in literature frequently conveys the sense that an event—whether tragic, transformative, or destructive—is about to occur, imbuing the text with urgency and tension. Authors use it to signal impending physical danger or catastrophe, as when death or peril is portrayed as closing in on a character or society ([1], [2], [3], [4]). At the same time, "imminent" is employed more abstractly to capture transformative shifts or moral reckonings, suggesting not just literal threats but also sudden changes in fate or character ([5], [6], [7]). Whether describing the natural environment bracing for an overwhelming storm, the political turmoil that foreshadows a revolution, or even the internal emotional strife of a character, the term enriches the narrative by underscoring the unstoppable approach of momentous events ([8], [9], [10]).
- The sense of imminent death gave him a certain dignity.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - Sir : You are hereby commanded to repair with your company to Knoxville, equipped, to protect the frontiers; there is imminent danger.
— from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney - At the imminent risk of being dashed headlong, she was flying down-stairs, two steps at a time.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter - I was suddenly brought back to reality by an imminent collision with the butcher-boy's tray.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - Accordingly he bethought himself of a new way of explaining and meeting the imminent catastrophe.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Perhaps, concerned only for his imminent doom, he had not had sincere sorrow for his sin?
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - But a moral and mental and emotional change was imminent.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - The dangers of the country are now grown imminent, immeasurable; National Assembly, hope of France, is divided against itself.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Dire pronouncements are occasionally published regarding an imminent "end of the world."
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - Now , where are these imminent dangers?
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
