Vocabulary - Ignis-fatuus

"It is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discoverd and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication." (Bronte 232)


Ignis-fatuus - a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often due to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter OR a deceptive goal or hope. It is up to the reader to determine which definition was intended.

I was walking in a dark and dreary swamp one day, when I  saw a mystical light. Was it ignis-fatuus, or a spirit trying to warn me of my fate?


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