Literary notes about cerulean (AI summary)
The word cerulean is often used to evoke both vivid natural imagery and a certain ethereal quality in literature. It frequently describes skies, seas, and expansive vistas, lending a sense of calm majesty and boundlessness—as when a sky is depicted as an unblemished, expansive canvas of blue [1][2][3]. At times, it functions technically as a color term, forming part of a palette that spans from pure pigments to nuanced shades, as seen in detailed listings of artistic colors [4][5]. Elsewhere, cerulean enriches metaphorical language, linking mood, atmosphere, and even character traits, such as in poetic invocations of clear, transcendent realms or symbolic attributes of a person [6][7][8]. Overall, its flexible use as both a literal descriptor of nature and a metaphorical device underscores the depth and versatility of the term in literary contexts.
- Far above modes and forms of earth, she stretches out her broad wings in the cerulean vault of her beloved repose.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868 by Various - The days lag lazily; the atmosphere is serene, and the cerulean, without a cloud, is deeply blue.
— from The Memories of Fifty YearsContaining Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest by W. H. (William Henry) Sparks - The great globe of the sky was unblemished and royal in its blueness and its ringing cerulean light.
— from Sea and Sardinia by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence - Flake white, rose madder, cerulean blue, vermilion, chrome green Nos. 1 and 2, burnt sienna, orange chrome, emerald green, mauve lake.
— from Ladies' manual of art; or, profit and pastime. A self teacher in all branches of decorative art, embracing every variety of painting and drawing on china, glass, velvet, canvas, paper and wood the secret of all glass transparencies, sketching from nature. pastel and crayon drawing, taxidermy, etc. by Anonymous - Cerulean Blue, made from cobalt and tin oxides, is also a permanent colour.
— from Illumination and Its Development in the Present Day by Sidney Farnsworth - “'O bright, translucent, cerulean hue, Let my wide wings drift on in you,'” said Harkless, pointing them out to Helen.
— from The Gentleman from Indiana by Booth Tarkington - Like ocean-billows' hollow roar, The teaming crowds of living man Toward the cerulean heavens upsoar, In bow of ever-widening span.
— from The Works of Frederick Schiller by Friedrich Schiller - She looked quite imperturbable again, and quite cerulean.
— from The Garden of the Plynck by Karle Wilson Baker
