Literary notes about Blear (AI summary)
Writers have long employed “blear” as an evocative descriptor for eyes that appear dim, unfocused, or marked by weariness. It is often used to signal physical fatigue or the burdens of age, as when an old crone is depicted with “blear‐eyed” features that enhance her forlorn, decrepit appearance ([1], [2]). In other instances, the term conveys a kind of mystical or altered perception—suggesting that the eyes, whether affected by tears, drink, or enchantment, have lost their usual sharpness ([3], [4]). In a broader literary context, “blear” imbues characters with an aura of diminished clarity or haunted introspection, contributing to a mood of melancholic decay or otherworldly disillusionment in the narrative ([5], [6]).
- She was a fearful old crone; hunchbacked, toothless, blear-eyed, bearded, halt, with huge gouty feet swathed in flannel.
— from The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth - A blear-eyed old crone made her appearance, and insisted upon showing me over the house.
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 1/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds - Thus I hurl My dazzling spells into the spungy air, Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 155 And give it false presentments, lest the place
— from An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty. by John Milton - I drink and doze and wake and think of hell, My eyes are blear from all the tears I shed: I'm pitiably bald: I'm but a shell!
— from The Old Soak, and Hail And Farewell by Don Marquis - Here’s Lucentio, Right son to the right Vincentio; That have by marriage made thy daughter mine, While counterfeit supposes blear’d thine eyne.
— from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare - By the love-glances of unlovely eyes, Of Satyrs, Fauns, and blear'd Silenus' sighs
— from Lamia by John Keats
