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Darken   Listen
verb
Darken  v. i.  To grow or darker.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Darken" Quotes from Famous Books



... experiments; and how it recalled Birkenhead! There was Thomson, there was my testing board, the strings of gutta-percha; Harry P- even, battering with the batteries; but where was my darling Annie? Whilst I sat feet in sand, with Harry alone inside the hut -mats, coats, and wood to darken the window - the others visited the murderous old friar, who is of the order of Scaloppi, and for whom I brought a letter from his superior, ordering him to pay us attention; but he was away from home, gone to Cagliari in a boat with the produce of the farm belonging to his convent. ...
— Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin • Robert Louis Stevenson

... Bower, at the Entrance of which Errour was seated. The Trees were thick-woven, and the Place where he sat artfully contrived to darken him a little. He was disguised in a whitish Robe, which he had put on, that he might appear to us with a nearer Resemblance to Truth: And as she has a Light whereby she manifests the Beauties ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... (or flame, perhaps, would be the better word for it) was so bright that the deep blue sky overhead and the hazy stretches of brown common towards Chertsey, set with black pine trees, seemed to darken abruptly as these puffs arose, and to remain the darker after their dispersal. At the same time a faint hissing ...
— The War of the Worlds • H. G. Wells

... ran the shores for the elk and the bison. Like magas [b] ride the birchen canoes on the breast of the dark Gitchee Seebee; By the willow-fringed islands they cruise by the grassy hills green to their summits; By the lofty bluffs hooded with oaks that darken the deep with their shadows; And bright in the sun gleam the strokes of the oars in the hands of the women. With the band went Winona. The oar plied the maid with the skill of a hunter. They loitered and camped on the shore of Remnica —the Lake ...
— Legends of the Northwest • Hanford Lennox Gordon

... be greater than of the former"? It is a question which it is natural to ask, and it should be ingenuously answered. Is it that these were tending to usurp the place of the spiritual, of which they were but the assurance and the symbol, and darken rather than reveal the eternal ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... the loveliest maid alive, Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone, The only paragon of Tamburlaine; Whose eyes are brighter than the lamps of heaven, And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony; That with thy looks canst clear the darken'd sky, And calm the rage of thundering Jupiter; Sit down by her, adorned with my crown, As if thou wert the empress of the world. Stir not, Zenocrate, until thou see Me march victoriously with all my men, ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part I. • Christopher Marlowe

... reference to females, you will find that the male sex furnishes almost the entire number of criminals. The saloons, gambling dens, the brothels, and bad literature are drawing down all that the public schools can build up. Seventy per cent. of the young men of this land do not darken the church door. They are not interested in moral improvement or moral education. Eighty-five per cent. leave school under 15 years of age; prefer the loafer's honors to the benefit ...
— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... by fits, irregularly great, That flash and darken like revolving lights, Catch more the vulgar eye unschooled to wait On the long curve of patient days and nights Bounding a whole life to the circle fair Of orbed fulfilment; and this balanced soul, So simple in its grandeur, coldly bare Of draperies theatric, standing there 260 In ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... and of the influence annexed to the profession for which he was intended, put itself forth with less discussion, but more energy. His manners and attitude became constrained; the expression of his face began to darken, and to mould itself into a stiff, gloomy formality, that was strongly calculated to conceal the natural traits of his character. His dress, too, had undergone a great improvement; for instead of wearing shop blue or brown, he wore good black broad-cloth, had a watch in his fob, ...
— Going To Maynooth - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... departed, Bearing a nation, with all its household goods, into exile, Exile without an end, and without an example in story. Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed; Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland. Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city, From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern savannas,— From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the Father of Waters Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck

... secretive, to make them shifty and deceitful, to throw them back upon themselves, to shut them up within themselves, to quench the joy of their hearts, to numb their sympathies, to cramp their expansive energies, to narrow and darken their whole outlook on life. All this the cruelty of his seniors would do to the child, even if he had not been taught to believe in his own inborn wickedness. But that belief, with which he has been indoctrinated from his ...
— What Is and What Might Be - A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular • Edmond Holmes

... you make that clear to us?' said Fausta; 'I should truly rejoice if out of the evils which so darken the earth, any thing good ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... soil renders it warmer, because it darkens its color. Black surfaces absorb more heat than light ones, and a black coat, when worn in the sun, is warmer than one of a lighter color. By mixing carbon with the soil, we darken its color, and render it capable of absorbing a greater amount of heat ...
— The Elements of Agriculture - A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools • George E. Waring

... rich yellow sky began to darken and the flocks of rooks flew cawing overhead, Ruth would shiver with a delicious sense of security as she stood beneath the porch in the gathering twilight and heard the wind begin to moan and sigh mysteriously, as if it trembled at the thought of spending the night on the ...
— Drolls From Shadowland • J. H. Pearce

... darken fast; and the golden blaze Of the sun is quenched in the lurid haze, And he sends through the shade a funeral ray— A glare that is neither night nor day, A beam that touches, with hues of death, The clouds above and the earth beneath. ...
— Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant - Household Edition • William Cullen Bryant

... the Kestrel[2] is found almost universally; and the bold and daring Goshawk[3] wherever wild crags and precipices afford safe breeding places. In the district of Anarajapoora, where it is trained for hawking, it is usual, in lieu of a hood, to darken its eyes by means of a silken thread passed through holes in the eyelids. The ignoble birds of prey, the Kites[4], keep close by the shore, and hover round the returning boats of the fishermen to feast on the fry rejected from ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent

... this record should end, for twilight approaches, and the shadows of the great mountains darken over the valley." ...
— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton

... accents, would soon be scattered as sheep without a shepherd, and leave him to himself in all that shame and agony. But even as he foretold it there gleamed upon his spirit the sunshine of an inner consciousness,—a comfort that no cloud could darken; and instantly he added, "And yet I am not alone, because the Father ...
— The Crown of Thorns - A Token for the Sorrowing • E. H. Chapin

... they are there. I saw him the king. Our cause it is just. Many words they darken speech. That noble general who had gained so many victories, he died, at last, in prison. Who, instead of going about doing good, they are ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham

... stooped and kissed the thin, shriveled lips of his grandmother—the first kiss he had ever given her. Then he turned and ran down the stairway, Hunt just behind him. He turned out the light in the back room, and called to Old Isaac to darken the pawnshop proper. He was going forth with two forces in arms against him, the police and his pals, and he had no desire to be a shining mark for either or both by stepping ...
— Children of the Whirlwind • Leroy Scott

... an excuse. What is she to do? She cannot read all day, and, if she could, what is the use of reading? Poets and philosophers do not touch her case; descriptions of moonlit seas, mountains, moors, and waterfalls darken by contrast the view of the tiles and chimneys from her own window. Ideas do not animate or interest her, for she never has a chance of expressing them and, lacking expression, they are indistinct. Her eyes wander down page ...
— More Pages from a Journal • Mark Rutherford

... shook his old noddle as much as to say he wouldn't; and so, says I, 'Bad cess to the likes o' that I ever seen,—throth if you wor in my counthry it's not that away they'd use you. The curse o' the crows an you, you owld sinner,' says I, 'the divil a longer I'll darken your door.' ...
— Stories of Comedy • Various

... and laughter is not banished from earth. Therefore Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Procurator of the Poor, shall make his ingenious notes for the defence of Count Guido, and cite his precedents and quote his authorities, and darken counsel with words, all to be by and by ecclesiasticized and regularized and Latinized and Ciceroized, while more than half the good man's mind is occupied with thought of the imminent "lovesome frolic feast" on his boy Cinone's birth-night, which shall bring with it lamb's fry and liver, ...
— Robert Browning • Edward Dowden

... began to darken as the great beast grew more restive, and she shook her red curls viciously. "Some one shall lose a head for this blundering," said she. "I ordered to have this beast trained to stand indifferent to drums, shouting, arrows, stones, and fire, and the trainers assured me that all ...
— The Lost Continent • C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

... cuttlefish, of which it was the prototype, it had an internal calcareous shell. This consisted of a chambered and siphuncled cone, whose point was sheathed in a long solid guard somewhat like a dart. The animal carried an ink sac, and no doubt used it as that of the modern cuttlefish is used,—to darken the water and make easy an escape from foes. Belemnites have sometimes been sketched with fossil sepia, or india ink, from their own ink sacs. In the belemnites and their descendants, the squids and cuttlefish, the cephalopods made the radical ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton

... you'd be blithe as a sparrow with your father back from the grave!" Then as Ranulph's face seemed to darken, she added: "He's not worse—he's ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... blood was in the ex-Dragoon's fiery face as the moon shone on it, and he drew out one of his holster pistols, and swung round in his saddle, facing the narrow entrance of the lane; ready to shoot down the first of the pursuit whose shadow should darken the broad stream of white light ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... which goes by, and the hours as well, darken the inferno. Two or three of us risk our faces at the earthen cleft and look out, as much for the purpose of propping ourselves against the earth as for seeing. But we see nothing, nothing on the infinite expanse which is full ...
— Light • Henri Barbusse

... industry, and the landowners almost monopolised political power, an ever growing proportion of the people was being collected in towns; the artisans were congregating in large factories; and the great cloud of coal-smoke, which has never dwindled, was already beginning to darken our skies. The change corresponds to the difference between a fully developed organism possessed of a central brain, with an elaborate nervous system, and some lower form in which the vital processes are still carried on by a number of separate ...
— The English Utilitarians, Volume I. • Leslie Stephen

... pearls that gleam in the billow, But darken the gloom of the deep— And laughter plants the pillow With ...
— Poems • Sam G. Goodrich

... brows that served to darken her eyes, dark brown hair waving enough to soften every line of her face, a girlish throat and a red mouth surprisingly tender and childish. As might have been expected her garb was neither rich nor smart, but it was pretty and well made and evidently fitted ...
— The Sky Line of Spruce • Edison Marshall

... happened. Oh, there's the lady who found Jenny Lind—and the enchanted princess, too!" she cried as they passed Miss Thorley and Miss Carter. "Isn't that the enchanted princess, Mr. Jerry?" She twisted around so that she could look into his face. He colored and his eyes seemed to darken as he spoke to the two girls. Miss Thorley nodded curtly, but Miss Carter waved a friendly hand. "My," sighed Mary Rose, "if I were a prince I wouldn't let any old ...
— Mary Rose of Mifflin • Frances R. Sterrett

... from the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land, crowned by the level tops of the cocoa-nut trees. As a white cloud here and there affords a pleasing contrast with the azure sky, so in the lagoon bands of living coral darken the ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin

... "Wouldn't it be better to darken things up a bit?" he suggested. "If there are bandits round it isn't necessary to send out a welcome to ...
— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... mend his appearance, so as to enable him the better to disguise the cause of his absence, on his return to his family, which he now concluded to defer till towards dinner-time, he fell into a slumber so profound and absorbing, that he did not awake till the shadows of approaching night had begun to darken his room. ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson

... scold and become limply unhelpful, he knew, and none the less so because he could not help things. She would say he ought to have worked harder, and a hundred such exasperating pointless things. Such thoughts as these require no aid from undigested cold pork and cold potatoes and pickles to darken the soul, and with these aids his soul was ...
— The History of Mr. Polly • H. G. Wells

... stage back, and returned to my lodgings. When I had told all that had occurred to Timothy, he replied, "I think, sir, that if you could replace me for a week or two, I could now be of great service. He does not know me, and if I were to darken my face, and put on a proper dress, I think I should have no difficulty in passing myself off as one of the tribe, knowing their slang, and having been so much ...
— Japhet, In Search Of A Father • Frederick Marryat

... Campagna's purple rim The sun had sunken so long that all was gray, Softly across the dusky sacristy Francesca glided back. The Psalter lay Scarcely discernible amid the gloom; But lo the marvel! On the darken'd page The verse which thrice she had essayed to read Now shone illuminate, silver-clear, as though God's hand had written it with the flash ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various

... was his son's decision; and only those very near and dear to him could quite appreciate the depth of the father's love, the tenderness of the father's heart, which permitted no tinge of bitterness, no lasting shadow of repining, to darken his relations with his son or to lessen in the slightest his overwhelming affection for him. Sensitive in the extreme, the son in his turn could not fail to feel his father's disappointment, almost to ...
— Robert Louis Stevenson • Margaret Moyes Black

... of silence lasted no longer than it has here taken to describe how it fell and enveloped them. Mr. Geltfin broke the silence without lifting the prevalent gloom. Indeed his words but depressingly served to darken it to ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... rocks and jagged growths hemmed in by lowering ranges, always looking close, yet never growing any nearer. The moon slanted back toward the west, losing its white radiance, and the gloom of the earlier evening began to creep into the washes and to darken under the mesas. By and by Ladd entered an arroyo, and here the travelers turned and twisted with the meanderings of a dry stream bed. At the head of a canyon they had to take once more to the rougher ground. Always it led down, always ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... it was the only thing that she could do and with relief watched his evil shape darken the doorway out of which he went, carefully closing the door and fastening the hasp on the outside. Then she heard the crunch of his footsteps in the dry leaves behind the Cabin. They moved rapidly and in a few moments ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs

... you have deliberately chosen, in spite of all that I have said, to go your own way, and to become a Papist, I will have no more to do with you. From this moment you cease to be my son. You shall not, while I live, darken my doors again, or sleep under my roof. I say nothing of what you have had from me in the past—your education and all the rest. And, since I do not wish to be unduly hard upon you, you can keep the remainder of your allowance up to July ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... very likely, in the morning, and the roads were clean and fresh, and the trees were sweet after their bath. And as the afternoon closed in I would sit on a gate in some unfrequented lane and watch the red fog darken over London town. I was happy then, as few lads are, I think. Those long silences, those solitary communings; were mind-building all the time. So, when I came away from home and settled in Chelsea, and heard men talk, I felt that I, too, had ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee

... in heaven, now they with Hero were: But Venus' looks brought wrath, and urged fear. Her robe was scarlet; black her head's attire; And through her naked breast shin'd streams of fire, As when the rarified air is driven In flashing streams, and opes the darken'd heaven. In her white hand a wreath of yew she bore; And, breaking th' icy wreath sweet Hero wore, She forc'd about her brows her wreath of yew, And said, "Now, minion, to thy fate be true, Though not to me; endure what this portends: Begin where lightness will, ...
— Hero and Leander and Other Poems • Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman

... penance than an embrace, ma fille cherie," said the abbe, who had returned to the veranda just in time to overhear Angela's confession. "I rejoice in your happiness, mignonne. To-day you make two men happy—your lover and myself. You have lightened my mind of the cares which threatened to darken my closing days. The thought of leaving you without a protector and Quipai without a chief was a sore trouble. Your husband will be both. Like Moses, I have seen the Promised Land, and ...
— Mr. Fortescue • William Westall

... her pale face darken in the dusk. She had blushed. Her whispering flowed very fast. It was the way they lived together—that wasn't right, was it? It was a guilty life. For she had not been forced into it, driven, scared into it. No, no—she had come to him of her own free ...
— Victory • Joseph Conrad

... conscience when judging of actions done by ourselves, and those which were performed by others. As long as the child is innocent of any particular vice, he can judge impartially of its nature and demerit; but when the temptation to commit it has really begun to darken his mind, and more particularly when he has at last fallen before it, all the selfish principles of his nature are employed to deceive his better judgment, and to drown or overbear the voice of conscience within ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... Lucrezia in after-life showed all the signs of a clear conscience. But so also did Alexander, whose buoyancy of spirits lasted till the very day of his death. Yet he was stained with crimes foul enough to darken the conscience of any man, at any period of life, and ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... warm, and life was like a flame within her. It was I who had become cold and bloodless, yet with the last life that was in me I would have sung to her of love that can never die. But at length my eyes grew dim, the room seemed to darken, the form of Ethelind alternately brightened and waxed indistinct, like the last flickerings of a fire; I swayed toward her, and felt myself lapsing into unconsciousness, with my head resting on her ...
— David Poindexter's Disappearance and Other Tales • Julian Hawthorne

... will we either open or close our heart toward God. The will is the entrance and door. The grace of God is free, and more abundant than the sunshine that lights and warms this earth. All of this sunshine may be kept out of the room if we will to have it so. We can darken the windows and doors, and keep every ray of light out, or we can have abundant sunshine if we will, by simply removing the obstacles. So it is with the illimitable grace of God. If we open up wide the door of our heart—our will—and keep it open continually, the ...
— Sanctification • J. W. Byers

... have many clouds of sorrow here to darken our lives, and our hearts would often fail us but for the thought, 'There is a bright side to every trial sent to the ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... forefelt a shadow of doom, His heart foreknew a gloomier gloom Than closes all men's equal ways, Albeit the spirit of life's light spring With pride of heart upheld him, king And lord of hours like snakes that sting And nights that darken days. ...
— The Tale of Balen • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... man is mad," reflected the poet; "he lives in his own bright world, sufficient to himself. May Zeus never send storms to darken it! For to bear disaster ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... whose years might double hers; ready even then to sacrifice even life itself, were it called for in defence of her sovereign, or the freedom of her country; and when, on the death of Alexander, clouds began to darken the horizon of Scotland, her father scrupled not to impart to her, child though she seemed, those fears and anxieties which clouded his brow, and filled his spirit with foreboding gloom. It was then that in her flashing eye and lofty soul, in ...
— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... before me fell the shadow of the future, a shadow soon to darken every fair domain, every home in ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers

... obtained about 80 lbs. of this wax, and made some excellent candles of it. The method of procuring this wax is by boiling the berries in a copper or brass vessel for some time. Iron pots are found to darken and cloud the wax. The vessel after a sufficient time is taken from the fire, and when cool the hardened wax, floating on the top of the ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds

... disable their judgment which he liked to say was no more infallible than so much Scripture, but the hardy infidel, who knew so much law and was inexpugnable in his office, owned that he could not make head against their gospel. He could darken their counsel with citations from "Common Sense" and "The Age of Reason," but the piety of the community remained safe ...
— The Leatherwood God • William Dean Howells

... the terrible solemnity of death. This is a gift bestowed by their guardian angels, that no gloomy shadows may darken the sunny brightness of ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... thee, Simon," said Richard, turning round and fully facing him; "I would rather perish an innocent man by the hands of the Provost Marshal, than darken my soul with thy counsels of blood. O Simon! What thy purpose may be I know not; but canst thou deem it faithfulness to our father, saint as he was, to live this dark wild life, so utterly abhorrent ...
— The Prince and the Page • Charlotte M. Yonge

... is nothing to me, the mother said; I have no fear that my boy will tread In the downward path of sin and shame, And crush my heart and darken his name. It was something to her when that only son From the path of right was early won, And madly cast in the flowing bowl A ...
— Poems • Frances E. W. Harper

... even now be on the way. I had a vision of him speeding along that desolate trail, sitting in the sleigh wrapped in furs, and brooding, brooding. As day after day the spell of the great and gloomy land grew on his spirit, I could see the sombre eyes darken and deepen. I could see him in the road-house at night, gaunt and haggard, drinking at the bar, a desperate, degraded cripple. I could see him growing more reckless every day, every hour. He was coming back to the scene of his ruined fortunes, and God knows with what wild ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service

... times, however, he had to face his responsibility properly, by refusing to put his seal to the papers in question, while noting his objections to the course of action proposed. The Papistry which was spreading over the country under the King's influence seemed to darken the land and to obscure the future. 'Popish Justices of the Peace establish'd in all counties, of the meanest of the people; Judges ignorant of the law, and perverting it—so furiously do the Jesuits drive, and even compel Princes to violent courses, and destruction ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn

... two ugly cousins—what were they? Were they not like two black clouds freighted with storms, and come to darken the light and disturb the pleasure of that happy household? No wonder their sleep was troubled that night. No wonder Emily awoke in a fright, caused by the terrible nightmare. But Jessie's sleep was sweet and sound, and when ...
— Jessie Carlton - The Story of a Girl who Fought with Little Impulse, the - Wizard, and Conquered Him • Francis Forrester

... remained on deck the whole night, for though as yet the sky was still unclouded, he had such faith in his weather-glass, that he took every precaution that prudence could suggest. About 11 P. M. the sky began to darken in the south, and the crew were called up, and all the sails hauled in, except the foresail, brigantine, top-sail, and jib-boom. At midnight the wind freshened, and before long the cracking of the masts, and the rattling of the cordage, and groaning of the timbers, awakened ...
— In Search of the Castaways • Jules Verne

... who would be the crest-jewel of the crown, bringing with her all good and the blessing of the High Gods, and in consequence of all these things the King took such pleasures as he could, and they were many, not knowing they darken the inner eye whereby what is royal ...
— The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories • L. Adams Beck

... then Palla's voice, resolutely tranquil. "Everything is all right in the world as long as you are kind to me, Jim. When you're not, things darken and ...
— The Crimson Tide • Robert W. Chambers

... "Thus far and no farther," is not a merciful saying. Cold and dread and pitiless, the wave claims its due—it stretches its arms to the fullest length, and does not pause or hearken to the desire of any human heart. Hopeless to appeal to is the unseen force that sends the white surge underneath to darken the pebbles to a certain line. The wetted pebbles are darker than the dry; even in the dusk they are easily distinguished. Something merciless is there not in this conjunction of restriction and impetus? Something ...
— The Open Air • Richard Jefferies

... the death, the name be nameless; Sterile of stars his twilight time of breath; With fire of hell shall shame consume him shameless, And dying, all the night darken his death. ...
— Songs before Sunrise • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... things are in my presage, and myself Am part of them and know not; but in dreams The gods are heavy on me, and all the fates Shed fire across my eyelids mixed with night, And burn me blind, and disilluminate My sense of seeing, and my perspicuous soul Darken with vision; seeing I see not, hear And hearing am not holpen, but mine eyes Stain many tender broideries in the bed Drawn up about my face that I may weep And the king wake not; and my brows and lips Tremble and sob in sleeping, like swift flames That tremble, or water when it sobs with ...
— Atalanta in Calydon • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... spears and arrows were flying about us so thickly that they seemed to darken the sky. I saw men and horses fall to right and left, but nothing touched me or the white robes that floated a yard or two ahead. Five minutes and we were gaining the further bank, and there the ...
— Ayesha - The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed • H. Rider Haggard

... to be an error, and that I had the courage to contradict the universal creed. I discovered light in its purity and truth, and I considered it my duty to fight for it. The opposite party, however, did their utmost to darken the light; for they maintained that shade is a part of light. It sounds absurd when I express it; but so it is: for they said that colors, which are shadow and the result of shade, are light itself, or, which amounts to the same ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... of the far-reaching rights conferred upon them. The personal appeal with which the Duke of Connaught accompanied the delivery of the Royal message went far to dispel "the shadow of Amritsar," which had, in his own apt phrase, "lengthened over the face of India" and threatened even to darken their own path. For on no subject had Indian feeling been more unanimous during the elections all over the country than in regard to the Punjab tragedy. None had been more persistently exploited by the "Non-co-operationists" ...
— India, Old and New • Sir Valentine Chirol

... and the mine; that what is obvious is not always known, and what is known is not always present; that sudden fits of inadvertency will surprise vigilance, slight avocations will seduce attention, and casual eclipses of the mind will darken learning; and that the writer shall often in vain trace his memory at the moment of need, for that which yesterday he knew with intuitive readiness, and which will come uncalled ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley

... told you of Percy's baseness, and when I saw how brave you were; how full of scorn for the dishonest man; how impossible it was for one so unworthy to drag you down, or darken your life because of his baseness; I was filled with shame and remorse. I knew then that I was unworthy your friendship, or of a good ...
— Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter • Lawrence L. Lynch

... rude tribes of the North, the fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... gold like those they say Pizarro saw in Peru. But 'tis a sweet land! Why, look around you!" he cried, warming to his subject. "The waters swarm with fish, the marshes with wild fowl. In the winter the air rings with the cohonk! cohonk! of the wild geese. They darken the air when they come and go. There in the forest stand the deer, waiting for your bullet; badgers and foxes, bears, wolves, and catamounts are more plentiful than are hares in England. You taste pleasure indeed when you ride full tilt through ...
— Prisoners of Hope - A Tale of Colonial Virginia • Mary Johnston

... account of the profits, and for that he had been ready to curse humanity. Black, horrible, as the memory of a stormy day, the rage of his heart returned to his mind, and he covered his eyes, endeavoring to darken the picture of terror and hate that shone before him. He tried to drive it all out of his thought, it vexed him to remember these foolish trifles; the trick of a publisher, the small pomposities and malignancies of the country folk, the cruelty of a village ...
— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen

... you, Teddy, on a very delikit business," said Mr. Kybird, taking a seat and gazing diffidently at his hat as he swung it between his hands; "though, as man to man, I'm on'y doing of my dooty. But if you don't want to 'ear wot I've got to say, say so, and Dan'l Kybird'll darken your door ...
— At Sunwich Port, Complete • W.W. Jacobs

... "on the great river, bad Indians who will cut off your heads without any cause. There are fierce warriors who will try to seize you and make you slaves. There are enormous birds there, whose wings darken the air, and who can swallow you all, with your canoes, at a mouthful. And worst of all, there is a malignant demon there who, if you escape all other dangers, will cause the waters to boil and whirl around you ...
— The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hu • John S. C. Abbott

... low voice spoke again in Annie's sleeping ear, saying, "The dark, unlovely passions you have looked upon are in your heart; watch well while they are few and weak, lest they should darken your whole life, and shut out love and happiness for ever. Remember well the lesson of the dream, dear child, and let the shining spirits make your heart ...
— Flower Fables • Louisa May Alcott

... know Brahma's Day Which is a thousand Yugas; if ye know The thousand Yugas making Brahma's Night, Then know ye Day and Night as He doth know! When that vast Dawn doth break, th' Invisible Is brought anew into the Visible; When that deep Night doth darken, all which is Fades back again to Him Who sent it forth; Yea! this vast company of living things— Again and yet again produced—expires At Brahma's Nightfall; and, at Brahma's Dawn, Riseth, without its will, to life new-born. But—higher, deeper, innermost—abides Another Life, ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold

... color of the hair various methods and preparations are employed. The principal of these are intended to darken it, but sometimes the contrary is aimed at. Whichever object is desired, it is necessary that the article or preparation employed to carry it out be not of a caustic or irritant nature, capable of injuriously ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous

... right, for I loved Esther, if it was only for Mary's sake. Says I, 'Esther, I see what you'll end at with your artificials, and your fly-away veils, and stopping out when honest women are in their beds: you'll be a street-walker, Esther, and then, don't you go to think I'll have you darken my door, though my wife is your sister?' So says she, 'Don't trouble yourself, John, I'll pack up and be off now, for I'll never stay to hear myself called as you call me.' She flushed up like a turkey-cock, and I thought fire would come out of her eyes; but when she ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell

... moments in human life. On too frequent a repetition, those pleasures turn to satiety and disgust; they tear the constitution to which they are applied in excess, and, like the lightning of night, only serve to darken the gloom through which they occasionally break. Happiness is not that state of repose, or that imaginary freedom from care, which at a distance is so frequent an object of desire, but with its approach ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... little or no morning bank. A brightening came in the East; then a wash of some ineffable, faint, nameless hue between crimson and silver; and then coals of fire. These glimmered awhile on the sea line, and seemed to brighten and darken and spread out; and still the night and the stars reigned undisturbed. It was as though a spark should catch and glow and creep along the foot of some heavy and almost incombustible wall-hanging, and the ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton

... a drowsiness he did not feel to secure the solitude his mood demanded. And Yoshio, enjoying to the full his state of temporary authority, sat outside the door of the tent and kept away inquirers. Listlessly Craven watched the evening shadows deepen and darken. For hours he had thought, not of himself but of the woman he loved, until his bruised head ached intolerably. And all his deliberation had taken him no further than where he had begun. He was to take up anew the difficult life he had fled from—for that was what it amounted to. He had deserted ...
— The Shadow of the East • E. M. Hull

... solitudes. All around the kelp-bed, porpoises are ploughing the water, now and then bounding up out of it; while seals and sea-otters show their human-like heads, swimming among the weeds. Birds hover above in such numbers as to darken the air, some at intervals darting down and going under with a plunge that sends the spray aloft in showers white as a snow-drift. Others do their fishing seated on the water; for there are many different kinds ...
— The Land of Fire - A Tale of Adventure • Mayne Reid

... I know It couldn't 'a' raised a louder fuss, Ner 'a' riled the old man's temper wuss! He jest LIT in, and cussed and swore, And lunged and rared, and ripped and tore, And told John jest to leave his door, And not to darken it no more! But Patience cried, with eyes all wet, "Remember, John, and don't ferget, WHATEVER comes, I love you yet!" But the old man thought, in his se'fish way, "I'll see her married rich some ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley

... from my thoughts hath pass'd, The prayer at my mother's knee— Darken'd and troubled I come at last, Thou home of ...
— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips

... it is likely that elaborate statements regarding this primary stage of knowledge will darken understanding. It includes practically all of our knowledge which is not the result of deliberate technical study. Modes of purposeful doing include dealings with persons as well as things. Impulses of communication and habits of intercourse have to be adapted ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey

... sin to be the cause of many mental woes that darken the world, and the principal cause of the greater proportion of sufferings that fall to the lot of man. He believes that a virtuous course of conduct, guided by the burning lamp of revelation, leads to those joys that time cannot sully, ...
— Twenty-Four Short Sermons On The Doctrine Of Universal Salvation • John Bovee Dods

... with which he makes an opening in the ice, a spear, his blanket, and a decoy-fish of wood, proceeds to the place he has fixed upon. Having cut a hole in the ice he places himself on hands and knees, and casts his blanket over him, so as to darken the water and conceal himself from observation; in this position he will remain for hours, patiently watching the approach of his prey, which he strikes with admirable precision as soon as it appears within the reach ...
— The Backwoods of Canada • Catharine Parr Traill

... you. Och but you're the unnatural wicked woman to go do such a thing, if you was twyste as cracked and crazy itself. Git along out of this, yourself and your ould cart, afore the polis comes after you. Och the misfort'nit little crathurs. And don't be offerin' to darken our doors agin wid the ojis ...
— Strangers at Lisconnel • Barlow Jane

... be prudent, she broke out before Darthea. "Insolent idiots! I hope I made Mr. Galloway understand, and the rest of them too! I trust Bessy Ferguson will never darken my doors again!" She walked up and down, and at last upset a big mandarin, who came head ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell

... wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? It can not die, it can not stay, But leaves its darken'd dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? Or fill at once the realms of space, A thing of ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... Amiens said, Heigh-ho, the Holly! So sang he. As the good Duke was comforted In forest exile, so may we! The years may darken as they flee, And Christmas bring his melancholy: But round the old mahogany tree We drink, we ...
— Ban and Arriere Ban • Andrew Lang

... at rest, In some former curious hour, We have watched the city's hue, All along the orange west, Cupola and pointed tower, Darken into ...
— Lyrics of Earth • Archibald Lampman

... a votive taper in the vault-like hearth, and drew a chair towards it. In spite of the impatience and preoccupation of a lover, he found himself again and again recurring to the story he had just heard, until the vengeful spirit of the murdered Doctor seemed to darken and possess the house. He was striving to shake off the feeling, when his attention was attracted to stealthy footsteps in the passage. Could it be Maruja? He rose to his feet, with his eye upon the door. The footsteps ceased—it remained closed. But another door, which had escaped ...
— Maruja • Bret Harte

... darken the gray square of the doorway, and he came in and swung to the door after him; then his hand sought my shoulder, and I heard a clank ...
— Wulfric the Weapon Thane • Charles W. Whistler

... gypsy run-the-fields, A little liberal daughter of the earth, Good for what hour of truancy and mirth The careless season yields Hither-side the flood o' the year and yonder of the neap; Then thank you, thanks again, and twenty light good-byes.— O shrined above the skies, Frown not, clear brow, Darken not, holy eyes! Thou knowest well I know that it is thou! Only to save me from such memories As would unman me quite, Here in this web of strangeness caught And prey to troubled thought Do I devise These foolish shifts and slight; Only to shield me from the afflicting sense Of some ...
— Gloucester Moors and Other Poems • William Vaughn Moody

... for a long time. They sat there silently, occasionally standing up to get the stiffness out of their limbs till the strip of sky above began to darken to gray. ...
— The Boy Aviators in Africa • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... hills and leafless forests slowly yield To the thick-driving snow. A little while And night shall darken down. In shouting file The woodmen's carts go by me homeward-wheeled, Past the thin fading stubbles, half-concealed, Now golden-gray, sowed softly through with snow, Where the last ploughman follows still his row, Turning black furrows through ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... made no attempt to form a garden, but had allowed the elms to grow right up to the walls of the house and to darken the windows of the gloomily situated dwelling as ...
— The Rebellion of Margaret • Geraldine Mockler

... have been the pang with which I watched them darken and shrivel that brought back the memory of another sharp stab. It was that day ten years ago, when I walked for the first time after my accident. Supported by a stick on one side, and by Atherley on the other, I crawled down the long gallery ...
— Cecilia de Noel • Lanoe Falconer

... in the prospect, remote as it might be. Ralph's breast heaved as he looked upon his brother's brightening face. That secret of his own heart must lie forever buried there. Yes, he had already resolved upon that. He should never darken the future that lay pictured in those radiant eyes. But this was a moment of agony nevertheless. Ralph was following the funeral of the mightiest passion of his soul. He got up ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... beheld his proud hopes blasted. In the hollow-breasted waves Roared the wind, the sea grew maddened, Billows upon billows rolled Mountain high, and wildly dashed them Wet against the sun, as if They its light would quench and darken. The poop-lantern of our ship Seemed a comet most erratic — Seemed a moving exhalation, Or a star from space outstarted; At another time it touched The profoundest deep sea-caverns, Or the treacherous sands whereon Ran the stately ship and parted. Then the fatal waves became Monuments ...
— The Purgatory of St. Patrick • Pedro Calderon de la Barca

... association with both the Beaubien and Ames. Jim once told me, in a burst of alcoholic confidence, that she had saved him from J. Wilton's clutches in the dim past, and for that he owed her endless gratitude, as well as for never permitting him to darken her door again. Now I have never met the Beaubien. Few women have. But I dare say she knows all about us. However, the point that concerns us now is this: she has a hold on Ames, and, unless rumor is wide of the truth, when she hints to ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... fellows as you against the lord of a manor! But you are for a trial of skill? Oh, very well, friend, very well! With all my soul! Since it is come to that, we will show you some pretty sport before we have done! But get out of my sight, you rascal! I have not another word to say to you! Never darken my doors again." ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin

... saying "Spring," full-blown summer is hot afoot. In high noon, in the open places, pools of water form in the ice. With glee is hailed the honk of the first wild goose, the coats of ptarmigan and rabbit thin and darken. There is water on the trail of the kit-fox. The subsidiary streams that feed the Mackenzie fill their banks and flush the rotting ice. With a crash, the drift-logs, with pan-ice and floating islands and all the gathered debris, roll headlong ...
— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron

... nothing gave me greater pleasure. I needn't say, I drank no vodka, I smoked no tobacco, and lived in chastity; but we all know such a mode of life is displeasing to the enemy of mankind, and he, the unclean spirit, once tried to ruin me and began to darken my mind, just as now with my cousin. First of all, I took a vow to fast every Monday and not to eat meat any day, and as time went on all sorts of fancies came over me. For the first week of Lent down to Saturday the holy fathers have ordained a diet of ...
— The Bishop and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... me, Celeste. There is certainly a God; I believe in that; but I have higher ideas of Him than those of your priests; I do not wish to bring Him down to my level; I want to rise to Him. I listen to the voice He has put within me,—a voice which honest men call conscience, and I strive not to darken that divine ray as it comes to me. For instance, I will never harm others; I will do nothing against the commandments of universal morality, which was that of Confucius, Moses, Pythagoras, Socrates, as well as of Jesus Christ. I will stand in the presence of God; my actions shall ...
— The Lesser Bourgeoisie • Honore de Balzac

... the days passed during the month after the funeral! The shadow of death seemed to darken everything. Doors creaked dismally when they were opened. The room where the body had been laid seemed to have grown a century older than the other parts of the once bright and cheerful house, —its atmosphere was so stagnant and full ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various

... compassion as she walked at his side. For all his admiration of her self-conquest, and of the tasks to which she had devoted herself, he would have liked to free her from the daily mill. She was young yet, and should taste of joy before the years began to darken about her. But these are the thoughts that must not be uttered. To show pity is to insult. A merry nod to the friend who staggers on beneath his burden; and, even at his last gasp, the friend shall try to nod ...
— The Whirlpool • George Gissing

... ancestral propulsion, by some heritage of the brute. It was made to get a grip on, a neck like that! And he grunted aloud, with wheezing and voluptuous grunts of gratification, as he saw the white face alter and the wide eyes darken with terror. He was making her suffer. He was no longer enveloped by that mild and tragically inquiring stare that had so discomforted him. He was no longer stung by the thought that she was good to look on, even with her head pinned down against a beer-stained card-table. He was converting ...
— Never-Fail Blake • Arthur Stringer

... them back somewhere in my mind and didn't try to see them or hear them too close. And when I did that, the great light was always there and I was running toward it. But now I have tried to tell, I see it is no more than words. They darken counsel. And I have put it back into my mind, not so much to be thought about as to have at hand. And all my trouble has gone. It has been a long trouble. I am over sixty now. But I am not afraid of anything and I am not in doubt. When ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown

... blast, high peak and spire snow-silvery leaving. 240 But from a rock's wall'd eyrie the father wistfully gazing, Father whose eyes, care-dimm'd, wore hourly for ever a-weeping, Scarcely the wind-puff'd sail from afar 'gan darken upon him, Down the precipitous heights headlong his body he hurried, Deeming Theseus surely by hateful destiny taken. 245 So to a dim death-palace, alert from victory, Theseus Came, what bitter sorrow to Minos' daughter his evil Perjury gave, himself with an even sorrow atoning. She, as his onward ...
— The Poems and Fragments of Catullus • Catullus

... book he held William-Lyon Mackenzie in high esteem, but he found it necessary afterwards to change his opinion. He was able to throw a flood of new light on the characters of the men who took part in the struggle, and if the facts tended to darken the fair fame of some of them, the historian certainly ought not to be censured for it. The tendency of the book was decidedly in opposition to the ideas entertained to this day by the partizans of the "Old Family Compact" on ...
— The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales • John Charles Dent

... Angrym, warrior bold, Stay thy travel o'er the wold; Stop, Havardur, stop thy steed; Thy death, thy bloody death's decreed. She, Coronzon's lovely maid, Whom thy wizard wiles betray'd, Glides along the darken'd coast, A frantic, pale, enshrouded ghost. Where the fisher dries his net, Rebel waves her body beat; Seduc'd by thee, she toss'd her form To the wild fury of the storm. Know thou feeble child of dust, Odin's brave, and Odin's just; From the Golden Hall I come To pronounce thy fatal doom; Never ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis



Words linked to "Darken" :   defile, cloud, black out, blind, overcloud, dim, lighten, embrown, change, darkening, shadow, tarnish, stain, overcast, benight, bedim



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