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Literary notes about rash (AI summary)

Across the literary spectrum, "rash" has been employed as a versatile adjective describing impulsive, impetuous, and sometimes foolhardy actions. In many works, it denotes the youthful and brash impetuosity that authors warn against—as in the admonitions of Pope and Dickens ([1], [2], [3])—while also characterizing bold, reckless military or political decisions, evident in historical narratives and epic poetry ([4], [5], [6]). At times the term extends beyond human behavior to capture natural phenomena and animalistic impulses, like Melville’s simile of a "rash, restive horse" ([7]). Moreover, "rash" is often juxtaposed with prudence and careful deliberation, serving as a cautionary marker in advice and moral meditation across genres, from Emerson’s reflective essays ([8], [9]) to the intimate domestic concerns voiced in novels by Alcott and Forster ([10], [11], [12]). This layered usage underscores the enduring literary preoccupation with the tension between spontaneous action and measured restraint.
  1. Ah cease, rash youth!
    — from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope
  2. Young men are rash, very rash.’
    — from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  3. My goodness me!’ exclaimed Mrs Nickleby, with a half-simper, ‘suppose he was to go doing anything rash to himself.
    — from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  4. He was a bold man, one of those who had carried out, on the morning of the 24th February, the rash surprise of the Hôtel de Ville.
    — from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo
  5. Rash, impious man!
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  6. The Sabines were routed in every quarter, and even when fighting no longer were cut down by the Romans, their rash confidence proving ruinous to them.
    — from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch
  7. In fact, precisely as a rash, restive horse is said to feel his oats, so Turkey felt his coat.
    — from Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street by Herman Melville
  8. Why insist on rash personal relations with your friend?
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  9. If the hive be disturbed by rash and stupid hands, instead of honey it will yield us bees.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  10. I won't be rash, but I think I'll try it,"
    — from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott
  11. “But you won’t do anything rash, Margaret?”
    — from Howards End by E. M. Forster
  12. Be patient, Jo, don't get despondent or do rash things; write to me often, and be my brave girl, ready to help and cheer us all.
    — from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

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