Sternlier

To whom, as more amazed and sternlier stung, / Faltering, the traitor urged this wild address: […]

Source: wiktionary

And haply, with the cream of sacred lore / Was blent some modern’s sweet but thrilling tale, / That made his eye gleam sternlier than before,— / A tale of Times when Scotland’s stifled wail, / And Persecutor’s shout, were blent on every gale.

Source: wiktionary

In vain she’d sought through many a striving hour / The word to break which stole the people’s bread; / His freezing brow did but the darker lower, / While sternlier to his will the tax he wed.

Source: wiktionary

Accept the swift and rueful death, / Taught, somewhat sternlier than is wont, what waits / The ambiguous creature,—how the one black tuft / Steadies the aim of the arrow just as well / As the wide faultless white on the bird’s breast.

Source: wiktionary