Questions tagged [meaning]
Questions regarding the meaning of certain terms or phrases used in a work of literature. If your question concerns the symbolic significance of something whose surface meaning is clear, use the [symbolism] tag instead. Please add specific tags as well: for the author (if known), the language (if not English), and either the work itself (if long) or the [poetry] or [short-stories] tags for short works.
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Who are the "only lovers on Earth without blame or tears"?
Marceline Desbordes-Valmore was a 19th century French Romantic poet. In her poem "Dans l'été" the middle verse reads:
Partout les nids et les ailes.
Tremblent doucement,
Dénonçant des ...
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What does "garb" mean in this passage?
In Einstein, History, and Other Passions: The Rebellion Against Science at the End of the Twentieth Century Gerald James Holton writes:
Here Spengler introduces his most startling idea, one that has ...
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Meaning of "The Word that Descends by Night" in "Segu"
Maryse Condé's third novel Segu (originally "Ségou: les murailles de terre") is divided into five parts, each of which is titled. Most of the titles are fairly obvious, "Part Two: The ...
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"The fat, sunny ring of the world's casually afternooned" in Stanley Elkin's "I Look Out for Ed Wolfe"
"I Look Out for Ed Wolfe" by Stanley Elkin, published in Esquire magazine (1st September, 1962), contains in its second paragraph the sentence:
In the sound of his own voice he detected the ...
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What is the meaning of 'in the note'?
It's from Edith Wharton's "Afterward", a short story published in 1910.
I can't figure out the real meaning of 'in the note' in the paragraph below.
But when she dipped into the damp heat ...
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What is the meaning of the brown flower in Condé's "The Gospel According to the New World"?
The central character of The Gospel According to the New World is Pascal, who may (or may not) be the son of God. At his christening, his foster mother, Eulalie, is given a flower by a visitor (who ...
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What is the meaning of "chabeen" in Conde's "The Gospel According to the New World"?
In Maryse Conde's final novel, The Gospel According to the New World, an artist named Roro Manigas is described as having painted a series entitled Virgin and Child:
where one canvas represented a ...
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"But he was also an artist" in Oscar Wilde's "The Model Millionaire"
The following lines are an extract from the short-story "The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde
Trevor was a painter. But he was also an artist, and artists are rather rare.
I think ...
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"Her voice just one half-note too high" in H. G. Wells' "The Cone"
From 'The Cone' by H. G. Wells:
There was another pause. Did the man mean to take the thing coolly? Did he after all know? How long had he been in the room? Yet even at the moment when they heard the ...
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"Four or six times", where is five? [closed]
This question arose from the reading of (a Spanish edition) of The First Voyage around the World (1519-1522): An Account of Magellan's Expedition by Pigafetta, where at some point he writes "they ...
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"A set of Guatemalas" in Forster's Maurice?
What does Forster mean by a "set of Guatemalas"? (From Chapter 1 of Maurice.)
"Well, Hall, expecting a pi-jaw, eh?"
"I don't know, sir—Mr Abrahams' given me one with 'Those ...
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What does "Nor our strong sorrow, upon the foot of motion" mean?
After the murder of Duncan in Macbeth, his two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, have this discussion after being informed of the murder of their father:
Malcolm [Aside to Donalbain]
Why do we hold our ...
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Meaning of "S. Epiph. her. 78" in the Douay-Rheims Bible (1635)
I’m currently trying to transcribe some notes from the 1635 Douay-Rheims Bible. I have a printed Facsimile I am working with at home, so far I have been able to understand most of the footnotes ...
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Understanding a sentence in The Church of Dead Girls
The following is from Stephen Dobyns' The Church of Dead Girls:
In any text there is both overt and covert material that accesses different cognitive levels within a reader. That is one of those ...
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“It’s fast holding by the rings in front” in Browning’s ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’
In ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ (1855) by Robert Browning, the speaker, the painter Filippo Lippi, says:
I’m grown a man no doubt, I’ve broken bounds:
You should not take a fellow eight years old
And make him ...
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What does "..and make joyful the hearing of my wife with your approach" mean?
In Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4, Duncan, the king, announces that Malcolm will be the Prince of Cumberland (and not Macbeth). Macbeth says that he'll go forward as a harbinger:
Duncan
[...]
We will ...
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What does "I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do" mean?
In Macbeth, while the witches are having their little meeting before going to meet Macbeth and tell him that he's going to be king, one of the witches details her plan of revenge against a greedy &...
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"Shut, shut those juggling eyes, thou ruthless man!" in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning of the following passage from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here):
"Shut, shut those juggling eyes, thou ruthless man!
Turn them aside, wretch! or the ...
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1
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"Will make Elysian shades not too fair, too divine." in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning of a verse from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here):
[...]
Now, when the wine has done its rosy deed,
And every soul from human trammels freed,
No more so ...
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1
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What does "master o' the Tiger" mean?
In Macbeth, before the witches go to speak to Macbeth, they have a little meeting where they discuss what they've been up to. That includes this bit about a greedy sailor's wife who won't share her ...
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"Leave thee alone! Look back! Ah, Goddess, see" in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning to the following excerpt from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here):
"Leave thee alone! Look back! Ah, Goddess, see
Whether my eyes can ever turn from thee!
...
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1
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"His phantasy was lost, where reason fades,..." in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning to the following excerpt from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here):
Thoughtless at first, but ere eve's star appeared
His phantasy was lost, where reason fades,
...
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1
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"More beautiful than ever twisted braid..." in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning to the following couplets from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here):
Ah, happy Lycius!—for she was a maid
More beautiful than ever twisted braid,
Or sigh'd, or ...
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1
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"Though Fancy's casket were unlock'd to choose" in John Keats's "Lamia"
I am trying to understand the meaning to the following excerpt from John Keats's Lamia (full poem here), and especially the fourth line below:
Fast by the springs where she to bathe was wont,
And in ...
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1
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What's the meaning of this sentence from "L'enfant noir" by Camera Laye?
I'm reading Camara Laye's novel L'enfant noir, translated in English as The African Child or The Dark Child. At the end of chapter 5, one can read:
Mais le monde bouge, le monde change, et le mien ...
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What is meant by "I was blue ribbon" and "I broke my blue ribbon"?
In The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (a Sherlock Holmes short story):
"'I was blue ribbon at that time, and we were putting a little money by, and all was as bright as a new dollar. My God, ...
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1
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What does Athena mean in this passage of book 3 of the Odyssey?
In book 3 of The Odyssey, Athena says this to Telemachus after he says that he will never gain her favor (in Robert Fagles' translation):
“Telemachus!”
Pallas Athena broke in sharply, her eyes afire—
...
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What does Athena mean by 'slaughtering his droves of sheep and cattle'?
In book 1 of The Odyssey, Athena says to Zeus (in Robert Fagles' translation):
While I myself go down to Ithaca, rouse his son
to a braver pitch, inspire his heart with courage
to summon the flowing-...
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What does Athena mean by "suave, seductive words" in the Odyssey?
In book 1 of The Odyssey, Athena says to Zeus (in Robert Fagles' translation):
"Atlas’ daughter it is who holds Odysseus captive,
luckless man—despite his tears, forever trying
to spellbind his ...
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What are the satellites in R. S. Thomas's poem "Here"?
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) was a Welsh poet and priest. His poem "Here" appears to express feelings of guilt and doubt. The penultimate stanza goes as follows:
I have no where to go
The swift ...
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What does 'bean honey' refer to, in Dorothy L. Sayers' 1928 story
In Dorothy L. Sayers' story, The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste we find this phrase: "‘No?’ said Bredon. His voice was like bean-honey now, sweet and harsh together."
This story ...
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In "Romeo and Juliet", why is Juliet the "sun"?
From William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II:
Romeo But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
Why does Romeo say that "Juliet is ...
user21145
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What does "crammle aboon the grees" mean?
At some point in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mina - Jonathan Harker's fiancée/wife - encounters an old man, and strikes up a conversation. The old man is depicted as speaking a rustic dialect, with that ...
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Which saying or proverb is Stendhal referring to in this passage from "Le rouge et le noir"?
The following passage from chapter XVI of Book I of the novel Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) by Stendhal refers to "un dicton de province", that is, at some kind of saying or ...
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Can infantry be the same as marines in 1809?
In THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF, by Arthur Quiller-Couch, the speaker, a cavalryman, is talking to a little Marine:
"'And that was very well done, drummer of the Marines. What's your name?'
"'...
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Meaning of "This clown of a wife"
The poem The Clown's Wife, by John Agard, shows the personal life of a clown at home is far cry from his professional life on stage as "a crowd entertainer"
Seeing his off stage miserable ...
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Meaning of a a phrase, “Not a one of us will not spend an hour or so making merit in a temple before the day is out.”
I am reading, Vulture Peak by John Burdett and came across this sentence on the second page… when the author is introducing a crime scene… and wonder what this means…
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What does the expression "Mignon country" refer to in Elsschot's "Cheese"?
I'm reading Willem Elsschot's novel Cheese in a French translation by Xavier Hanotte. In chapter 3, I have found an expression that I believe it can be translated as "Mignon country" (...
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1
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How can a "straight" (virtuous) man engage in "blackbirding"?
In The Heathen, by Jack London, the narrator speaks of some Kanaka man, Otoo, whom he had met on a schooner:
And this I know: I lived a straighter and better man because of Otoo. I cared little for ...
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Meaning of the last stanza of "Haunted Houses" by Longfellow?
In the poem "Haunted Houses" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the last two stanzas read:
And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud
Throws o'er the sea a floating bridge of light,
Across ...
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1
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"Wear the broom and climb the hedgerows" in Housman's "A Shropshire Lad"
Here’s poem XXXIX from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896):
’Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town
The golden broom should blow;
The hawthorn sprinkled up and down
Should charge the land ...
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Difficulty understanding the meaning of a line in Paradise Regained
I'm having trouble understanding the phrase "For no allurement yields to appetite" in the following passage from Milton's Paradise Regained:
"By hunger, that each other creature tames,
...
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What is mispronounced as "kitten-muncher"?
In Henry Dunbar: The Story of an Outcast by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, set around 1850 and published 1864, we have the following:
The footman made no response to his parting civility, but stood watching ...
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Meaning of "they were nearly overwhelmed by the concussive stimuli"
From The Gate (1910) by Natsume Sōseki, translated by William F. Sibley (2013):
For the first two or three weeks after their arrival in Tokyo the days went by in a dizzying blur. Along with the ...
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"The Book of Disquiet" passage: "when affection can no longer compensate for the indifference that was the dead man’s lot in life"
A passage by Fernando Pessoa from The Book of Disquiet, translated by Richard Zenith (2001):
It sometimes occurs to me, with sad delight, that if one day (in a future to which I won’t belong) the ...
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1
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Meaning of "deep body" in this context?
I'm currently reading a book of D. H. Lawrence, "The Princess and other stories", and I encountered an adjective in "Sun" that I can't figure out entirely. I'm not a native English ...
user20781
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2
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Who is the poet persona from the third stanza of "The terrorist he is watching"
Though looking simple with short dialogues, the poem The Terrorist He Is Watching written by the nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska is not well understood by many, including me.
Who actually is (are?) ...
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How does ignorance make a barren waste in "To the Nile" by John Keats?
The sonnet "To the Nile" (1818) by John Keats reads as follows:
Son of the old Moon-mountains African!
Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile!
We call thee fruitful, and that very while
...
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1
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Sparrows in "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov
The following dialogue spoken by the character Smirnov in the farce "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov reads as follows:
[taps his forehead] Excuse my outspokenness, a sparrow can give
ten points ...
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1
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To understand "silver dew" in William Blake's "To the Evening Star"
I find the words "silver dew" occuring in the poem "To the Evening Star" by William Blake, over which I'm confused a little:
Thou fair-haired angel of the evening,
Now, whilst the ...
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