Careful Words

torn (v.)

torn (adj.)

Torn from their destined page (unworthy meed

Of knightly counsel and heroic deed).

John Ferriar (1764-1815): Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 121.

The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree

I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.

I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 10.