perceant

perceant

(ˈpɜːsənt)
adj
piercing; penetrating
References in periodicals archive ?
Under Apollonius' "juggling" and "demon eyes" (Keats 1970: 178) which act like a potion spreading away the spell or like a spear killing a hero in a war ("the sophist's eye,/Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly,/Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging" (Keats 1970: 178), Lamia is "changed" and "withered" ("My sweet bride withers at their potency," Keats 1970: 178).
Children of the night
The catastrophe, in which "the sophist's eye / Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly, / Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging" (2:299-300), is remarkably extreme in figuring the gaze as violence, but it is also a mere development of the violence implicit in the poem's more commonplace figures for seeing.
Then Lamia breath'd death breath; the sophist's eye, Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly, Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging: she, as well As her weak hand could any meaning tell, Motion'd him to be silent; vainly so, He look'd and look'd again a level--No
Reading Keats to the letter: e
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