Literary notes about stony (AI summary)
The word "stony" is employed in literature to evoke both the physical hardness of objects and the emotional coldness of characters. It can describe a rigid, unyielding demeanor in persons—for instance, a character’s unmoved, impassive gaze or heart is often contrasted with soft, human warmth, as seen when someone is described with a “stony manner” or a “stony heart” ([1], [2], [3]). Equally, it appears in depictions of the natural world and constructed environments, lending scenes a sense of harsh solidity, whether referring to rocky landscapes, stony shores, and barren ground ([4], [5], [6]) or evocative architectural features like stony courtyards and walls that silently witness past sorrows ([7], [8]). In highly metaphorical contexts, "stony" intensifies the imagery; a dart of “senseless cold” or the weight of a “stony shower” emphasizes feelings of brutal finality or relentless fate ([9], [10]). Across these varied uses, "stony" functions as a versatile adjective, seamlessly bridging descriptions of physical texture and emotional state.
- He looked at her in the same steady, stony manner, for some moments after he had done speaking.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - I know the prisoner: the savage, stony heartlessness ascribed to him by the prosecutor is inconsistent with his character.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Will nothing soften that stony heart of thine?
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett - Once I was surprised to see a cat walking along the stony shore of the pond, for they rarely wander so far from home.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - The valley here was stony, inclosed by enormous rocks.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - It has the same stony shore, and its waters are of the same hue.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - Many and many a sorrowful story like this these stony walls could tell if they could but speak.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - So saying, he pushed forward, and, the gates being opened, he entered the stony courtyard of the Priory, his men behind h
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle - Then let the stony dart of senseless cold Pierce through the centre of my wither'd heart, And make a passage for my loathed life!
— from Tamburlaine the Great — Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe - Then calling on her magic power The fearful fight to wage, She smote him with a stony shower, Till Ráma burned with rage.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki