Literary notes about piercing (AI summary)
The term “piercing” is employed with remarkable versatility in literature to evoke sensations both physical and emotional. It is used literally to depict sharp, almost unbearable experiences, as in the description of severe cold that seems to cut through the atmosphere [1] and the sudden, excruciating pain that shocks the senses [2]. It also qualifies auditory expressions, imbuing voices and cries with a raw, penetrating quality that demands attention [3], [4], and it appears in figurative contexts to characterize stares or glances so intense they seem to dissect a character’s very soul [5]. Moreover, authors frequently extend its metaphorical reach to encapsulate internal emotional turmoil, rendering feelings of guilt, sorrow, or even determination with an immediacy that resonates deeply with the reader [6].
- It was piercing cold, too; all was gloomy and black.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - “I was sitting here, and all of a sudden, do you know, I felt a terrible piercing pain in my side . . .
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - And Dame Nanette sprang to the window, threw it open, and in such a piercing voice that it might have been heard in the square of Notre Dame: “Help!”
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - He uttered a piercing shriek, and threw himself beside her.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - It was a gaunt, aquiline face which was turned towards us, with piercing dark eyes, which lurked in deep hollows under overhung and tufted brows.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Long unused to any self-control, the piercing agony of her remorse and grief was terrible.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
