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Literary notes about steel blue (AI summary)

In literature, “steel blue” is frequently employed as a vivid descriptor that enhances both natural landscapes and human features. The hue may evoke the calm profundity of a sky or sea, as when a narrator details a “steel blue sky” or a sea that shifts into “steel blue” hues at twilight [1], [2], [3]. Equally, it often adorns characters’ eyes and attire to suggest determination or subtle melancholy—consider the description of a character with “steel blue eyes” that seem to pierce through his surroundings [4], [5], [6]. Moreover, the color graces the plumage of birds or the delicate facets of nature, imbuing scenes with a metallic, almost otherworldly shimmer, as seen in accounts of a barn swallow’s lustrous feathers or the reflective glint on a spore’s wall [7], [8], [9]. This recurring use of steel blue not only broadens the sensory impact of the narrative but also provides a cool, reflective counterpoint to warmer tones in the text.
  1. The sun smiled from a steel blue sky and danced in golden stripes on the bright, calm surface of the sea.
    — from The Adventures of the U-202: An Actual Narrative by Spiegel, E. (Edgar), Freiherr von
  2. Outside their windows, the sun was glowing over the steel blue sea.
    — from Phebe, Her ProfessionA Sequel to Teddy: Her Book by Anna Chapin Ray
  3. And he lay with eyes half closed, staring at the steel blue overhead.
    — from Over the Pass by Frederick Palmer
  4. Jack was nearly seventeen, with light hair and steel blue eyes.
    — from Guilt of the Brass Thieves by Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt
  5. He had no courage to face the steel blue of her eye.
    — from The Way of the Wind by Zoé Anderson Norris
  6. Whenever he was out of doors, they noticed, his steel blue eyes roved naturally to the distant peaks of Crazy Mountain.
    — from Boy Scout Explorers at Headless Hollow by Don Palmer
  7. The Barn Swallow of the United States, much like that of Europe, is lustrous steel blue, pale chestnut below, tail deeply forked.
    — from The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers
  8. It was of a most beautiful greenish colour, variegated with steel blue.
    — from Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnean Society. Fourth Edition by Samuel Smiles
  9. Vegetative cells 7.5-9µ in diameter, zygospores 24-30µ × 30-42µ steel blue, otherwise like the type.
    — from The Ohio Journal of Science, Vol. XVI, No. 1, November 1915 by Various

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