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Results tagged with meaning
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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.
3
votes
Meaning and significance of "vaultlike door" and "contract around the object in a single yaw...
It's not that common, but its meaning is clear. … A yawn of appetite is a metaphor whose exact meaning is less clear. Presumably, it's appetite because she really wants the screwdriver, and yawn because it's completely encompassed by her attention. …
- 14.3k
4
votes
What is the quote "We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe" tr...
The quote (which has been altered slightly from the original) seems to have first appeared in Joseph Jaworski's book Synchonicity: The Inner Path of Leadership, whose first edition was published in 19 …
- 14.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Meaning of “the fears of the fishing-rod of Utopia” in Forgetting by Robert Lynd
The line is mistranscribed. It is
... the feats of the fishing-rod of Utopia.
When feats is replaced by fears, the line does not make very much sense.
And in case you're still confused, what th …
- 14.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Meaning of lines from Bilbo's "Song of Eärendil" in "The Lord of the Rings"
The syntax is completely mangled here in order to allow the incredibly strict scheme of internal assonance and rhymes (which is really a tour de force). You have to untangle it before you can understa …
- 14.3k
2
votes
What does "soul" mean in "My Face for the World to See"?
So delousing station is wordplay on the meaning of the word louse. The same thing is true for soul — the various usages of the word soul mean different things. … Another meaning is a person's emotional nature — this is presumably what the psychiatrist is treating.
For a third meaning, if you are soulless, you lack compassion or other human feelings. …
- 14.3k
0
votes
What does "The beginning came long after the end" mean in George R.R. Martin's Dying of the ...
The beginning is the beginning of the chain of events related in the novel Dying of the Light.
The end is the end of the relationship with the woman he gave the whisperjewel to.
To me, it's not clea …
- 14.3k
1
vote
In the poem "North" by Seamus Heaney, what is meant by the Aurora Borealis line and the word...
What does "nubbed" mean? Something is nubbed if it has a nub or nubs. (Just like something is fringed if it has fringes, or something is winged if it has wings.)
The definition of nub is (from Oxford …
- 14.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Why does Caponsacchi count his fingers in "The Ring and the Book"?
He was probably counting on his fingers, trying to ensure that there were exactly 11 syllables in each line.
In the 19th century, counting one's fingers seems to have often meant counting on one's fi …
- 14.3k
3
votes
What is ‘the secret of Da Vinci’s drains’ in ‘Aurora Leigh’?
To answer one of your questions, Googling, I found a version of Aurora Leigh that had a footnote referencing Matthew 2:3. Looking this up, we find that Matthew 2:2-4 reads
So when you give to the …
- 14.3k
3
votes
Accepted
Why is Aurora Leigh proud of “colonising beehives” in the poem by Elizabeth Browning?
Removing the parenthetical interruption so as to follow the syntax better, we have
While I in vain touch cymbals. Yet, concede,
Such sounding brass has done some actual good,
...
In coloni …
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5
votes
Accepted
Use of "antithesis" by Jack London
In your question, you left out a previous sentence that is important for figuring out what this means:
This man was called "Beauty" by the other men of the fort.
What your sentence means is that it' …
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10
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "And do not drop in for an after-loss" in Shakespeare's sonnet 90
So it's easy to see how the arrive singly meaning turned into the make an informal or unexpected visit meaning. … The meaning to fall upon does not fit as well. …
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6
votes
Accepted
What does H. G. Wells mean by "He had added to exceptional business 'push', bankruptcy under...
You should parse this as bankruptcy under the old dispensation and judicious matrimony were added to business "push".
Judicious matrimony probably means he married somebody with lots of money — i.e. …
- 14.3k
6
votes
Accepted
What does the last sentence "Better look at the oil, too" mean?
This question belongs in mechanics.stackexchange, not literature.stackexchange. :-)
In 1945, when this book was written, cars needed their motor oil filled up every so often, and when you stopped at a …
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2
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "I'm glad it was only wings, though. I'd rather see the birds as aren't there..."
My interpretation is that he thinks he was hallucinating the children with wings because he drank too much — he's calling them birds — and he is saying that there are much worse things that he could h …
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