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Literary notes about blurt (AI summary)

In literature, "blurt" is often employed to capture moments of sudden, unpremeditated speech that reveals truths or emotions before a character can reconsider their words. Authors use it to emphasize impulsiveness or vulnerability; for instance, a character declaring, "What I have to say I must blurt out at once" [1] underscores the urgency of their confession, while another hesitates, nearly letting secrets escape before caution intervenes [2, 3]. At times, it also serves a humorous or satirical function, as when unfiltered remarks disrupt orderly dialogue or expose a speaker's inner turmoil [4, 5]. Overall, the term encapsulates the tension between the desire for frank expression and the inevitable consequences of speaking without restraint [6, 7].
  1. What I have to say I must blurt out at once, ofttimes in a way that gives pain to those to whom I speak.
    — from Roger Trewinion by Joseph Hocking
  2. His first impulse had been to blurt out the news, but on second thought he had decided not to.
    — from The Boy Scouts in A Trapper's Camp by Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
  3. They did manage to blurt out that 'Enrietter was not tidy, which I regretted.
    — from Our House and London out of Our Windows by Elizabeth Robins Pennell
  4. Follow me, honest fool, But if thou blurt thy curse among our folk, I know not—I may give that egg-bald head The tap that silences. HAROLD.
    — from Queen Mary; and, Harold by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
  5. You see what an effect your heedless speech has had; you ought to have been more considerate than to blurt out such a cruel piece of slander as that.”
    — from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
  6. It was queer though that, after having kept still so long, he should blurt out his secret in that fashion.
    — from The Secret of the Storm Country by Grace Miller White
  7. That didn’t satisfy my curiosity, so I had to blurt out exactly what I meant.
    — from A Maid and a Million Men the candid confessions of Leona Canwick, censored indiscreetly by James G. Dunton by James G. (James Gerald) Dunton

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