Literary notes about sombrous (AI summary)
The term "sombrous" is often invoked to create an atmosphere steeped in gloom and mystery, whether describing a shadowed landscape or the inner turmoil of a character. It frequently paints nature as an embodiment of melancholy, capturing the dark, brooding quality of a midnight sea or a forest shrouded in mist ([1], [2], [3]). At other times, it reflects a pensive emotional state or a feeling of subdued despair, as when a character’s eyes or thoughts are rendered sombrous with unspoken suffering ([4], [5], [6]). Across these varied contexts, the word serves to intensify the visual and emotional texture of the narrative, ensuring that both setting and sentiment are imbued with a profound, evocative gloom ([7], [8]).
- The route led through many long, sombrous tunnels, entrance into which from the blazing sunshine was like the diving into a mountain lake.
— from Four Months Afoot in Spain by Harry Alverson Franck - ——— rend=';' Brood sombrous clouds above a midnight sea; Rude, rifted rocks rise round the final shore Of life’s wide world.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 3, September 1852 by Various - The night was sombrous and the rain had been falling for an hour.
— from The Silent Battle by George Gibbs - A pale girl, with great large sombrous eyes and compressed lips, meets him, and places her hand in his without a word.
— from Mrs. Geoffrey by Duchess - I am often melancholy and unhappy; and this sombrous disposition proceeds from my numerous disappointments in life.
— from Literary Character of Men of GeniusDrawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions by Isaac Disraeli - So he took his leave and returned home again; but his thoughts were sad and sombrous because of the refusal he had met with.
— from Tales from the Old French - The sullen hills were flanked with light, and the valleys chined with shadow, and all the sombrous moors between awoke in furrowed anger.
— from Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore - “The forest looks sombrous and dark, my son, because night approaches,” said Amer, tenderly.
— from My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa by Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley
