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stripling walls

Arthur Lebedeff

Senior Member
Russian
Hey, guys. Could you, please, explain what does this bold piece "stripling walls" mean? I looked it up in the dictionary, there was only "stripling = youth". And it does not quite fit as far as I understand it.

The veranda of the central building was illuminated from open French windows, save where the black shadows of stripling walls and the fantastic shadows of iron chairs slithered down into a gladiola bed.
(From "Tender is the night" by F.S. Fitzgerald)
It should probably be 'stippling'.

From the WR dictionary:

stip′pling.
  1. the method of painting, engraving, etc., by stippling.
  2. stippled work;
    a painting, engraving, or the like, executed by means of dots or small spots.
I think it's a case of Fitzgerald using a word poetically to suggest the effect of moving stripes of shadows on a wall, and has no relation with the formal definition of stripling or of stippling. I think it's just a word that sounded good to Fitzgerald.
I think it's a case of Fitzgerald using a word poetically to suggest the effect of moving stripes of shadows on a wall, and has no relation with the formal definition of stripling or of stippling. I think it's just a word that sounded good to Fitzgerald.
Thank you!
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