Crossword-Solution: DIRER 5 letters, 40 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 6

The usually mirrored surface of the river was blurred by an infinity of raindrops; the whole landscape had a completely water-soaked appearance, conveying the impression that the earth was wet through like a sponge; while the summit of a wooded hill, about a mile distant, was enveloped in a dense mist, where the demon of the tempest seemed to have his abiding-place and to be plotting still direr inclemencies.

XLV When this he saw was broke, the truncheon sound And yet entire, he took, both hands between, And with so many bodies strewed the ground, That direr havoc never yet was seen: And as with that jaw bone, by hazard found, The Hebrew Samson slew the Philistine, Crushed helm and shield; and often side by side, Slain by the truncheon, horse and rider died.

LVI The deep sonorous trumpet's bellowing, And sound of drum, and barbarous instrument, Combined with twang of bow, and whiz of sling, Wheel and machine, and stone from engine sent, And (what more loud than these appeared to ring) Tumult, and shriek, and groan, and loud lament, Composed a direr whole than what offends The neighbouring tribes where deafening Nile descends.

And yet was this the monarch's least displeasure; Vexed by a direr and a worse despite; Harassed, though richest of those Nubian kings, By a perpetual hunger's cruel stings.

XXII "But as the joyful swans, that, singing sweet, Convey the medals safely to the fane, So they whose praises poets well repeat, Are rescued from oblivion, direr pain Than death.