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Literary notes about tramp (AI summary)

Throughout literature, the term "tramp" is used in a variety of nuanced ways, ranging from a label for the itinerant, socially marginalized individual to a descriptor of rhythmic, often mechanical movement. In some works, it appears as a noun denoting a vagabond or wanderer—a figure of both pity and disdain—such as when an angry character quickens his "tramp" [1] or a peasant identifies himself as a tramp [2]. On the other hand, "tramp" also evokes a steady, measured noise accompanying movement, as seen in the description of disembodied hoofbeats or distant footsteps [3, 4, 5]. Authors use the term to imbue their narratives with a dual sense of physical journeying and emotional momentum, highlighting both the social derision attached to vagrancy [6, 7] and the rhythmic pulse of life itself [8, 9].
  1. May said nothing, only quickened his angry tramp.
    — from Life in the Iron-Mills; Or, The Korl Woman by Rebecca Harding Davis
  2. What’s your calling?” “I am a peasant and of peasant family,” sighed the tramp.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  3. The rolling wheels were noiseless, and the sharp ring and clatter of the horses’ hoofs, became a dull, muffled tramp.
    — from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
  4. Presently they who were about the son of Atreus drew near in a body, and roused him with the noise and tramp of their coming.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  5. All the gates were flung wide open, and horse and foot sallied forth with the tramp as of a great multitude.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  6. Dear, dear, it only shows that there is nothing diviner about a king than there is about a tramp, after all.
    — from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
  7. He would not despise him, tramp as he was!
    — from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
  8. I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)
    — from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  9. Next time, to tarry, While the ages steal, — Slow tramp the centuries, And the cycles wheel.
    — from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson

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