Chapter 11 of 19 · 3991 words · ~20 min read

Part 11

Bright as the tear of an angel, glittered a lonely star

Brilliant and gay as a Greek

Brisk as a wasp in the sunshine

Brittle and bent like a bow

Bronze-green beetles tumbled over stones, and lay helpless on their backs with the air of an elderly clergyman knocked down by an omnibus

Brown as the sweet smelling loam

Brute terrors like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic

Buried in his library like a mouse in a cheese

Burns like a living coal in the soul

But across it, like a mob's menace, fell the thunder

But thou art fled, like some frail exhalation

Butterflies like gems

C

Calm as the night

Calm like a flowing river

Calm like a mountain brooding o'er the sea

Calmly dropping care like a mantle from her shoulders

Cast thy voice abroad like thunder

Charm upon charm in her was packed, like rose-leaves in a costly vase

Chaste as the icicle

Cheeks as soft as July peaches

Chill breath of winter

Choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity

Cities scattered over the world like ant-hills

Cities that rise and sink like bubbles

Clear and definite like the glance of a child or the voice of a girl

Clear as a forest pool

Clear as crystal

Clenched little hands like rumpled roses, dimpled and dear

Cloud-like that island hung afar

Clouds like the petals of a rose

Cloudy mirror of opinion

Cold and hard as steel

Cold as the white rose waking at daybreak

Cold, glittering monotony like frosting around a cake

Collapsed like a concertina

Colored like a fairy tale

Companionless as the last cloud of an expiring storm whose thunder is its knell

Consecration that like a golden thread runs through the warp and woof of one's life [warp = lengthwise threads] [woof = crosswise threads]

Constant as gliding waters

Contending like ants for little molehill realms

Continuous as the stars that shine

Cowslips, like chance-found gold

Creeds like robes are laid aside

Creeping like a snail, unwillingly to school

Cruel as death

Curious as a lynx

Cuts into the matter as with a pen of fire

D

Dainty as flowers

Dance like a wave of the sea

Dark and deep as night

Dark as pitch

Dark trees bending together as though whispering secrets

Dazzling white as snow in sunshine

Deafening and implacable as some elemental force

Dear as remembered kisses after death

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes

Dearer than night to the thief

Debasing fancies gather like foul birds

Deep as the fathomless sea

Deep dark well of sorrow

Delicate as nymphs

Delicate as the flush on a rose or the sculptured line on a Grecian urn

Denominational lines like stone walls

Dependency had dropped from her like a cast-off cloak

Despondency clung to him like a garment that is wet

Destructive as the lightning flash

Die like flies

Dip and surge lightly to and fro, like the red harbor-buoy

Disappearing into distance like a hazy sea

Dissatisfaction had settled on his mind like a shadow

Dissolve like some unsubstantial vision faded

Do make a music like to rustling satin

Dogging them like their own shadow

Dost thou not hear the murmuring nightingale like water bubbling from a silver jar?

Drop like a feather, softly to the ground

Drowned like rats

Dull as champagne

E

Each like a corpse within its grave

Each moment was an iridescent bubble fresh-blown from the lips of fancy

Eager-hearted as a boy

Eager with the headlong zest of a hunter for the game

Ears that seemed as deaf as dead man's ears

Easy as a poet's dream

Emotions flashed across her face like the sweep of sun-rent clouds over a quiet landscape

Eternal as the skies

Evanescent as bubbles [evanescent = vanishing like vapor]

Every flake that fell from heaven was like an angel's kiss

Every lineament was clear as in the sculptor's thought [lineament = characteristic feature]

Everyone on the watch, like a falcon on its nest

Every phrase is like the flash of a scimitar

Exploded like a penny squib

Eyes as deeply dark as are the desert skies

Eyes as luminous and bright and brown as waters of a woodland river

Eyes half veiled by slumberous tears, like bluest water seen through mists of rain

Eyes like a very dark topaz

Eyes like deep wells of compassionate gloom

Eyes like limpid pools in shadow

Eyes like mountain water that o'erflowing on a rock

F

Faces pale with bliss, like evening stars

Fade away like a cloud in the horizon

Faint and distant as the light of a sun that has long set

Faintly, like a falling dew

Fair and fleet as a fawn

Fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky

Fallen like dead leaves on the highway

Falling away like a speck in space

Fanciful and extravagant as a caliph's dream

Fawning like dumb neglected lap-dogs

Felt her breath upon his cheek like a perfumed air

Fields of young grain and verdured pastures like crushed velvet

Fierce as a bear in defeat

Fierce as the flames

Fills life up like a cup with bubbling and sparkling liquor

Fit closely together as the close-set stones of a building

Fix'd like a beacon-tower above the waves of a tempest

Flame like a flag unfurled

Flap loose and slack like a drooping sail

Flashed with the brilliancy of a well-cut jewel

Fled like sweet dreams

Fleet as an arrow

Flitted like a sylph on wings

Flowers as soft as thoughts of budding love

Fluent as a rill, that wanders silver-footed down a hill

Fluid as thought

Fluttered like gilded butterflies in giddy mazes

Fragile as a spider's web

Free as the air, from zone to zone I flew

Free as the winds that caress

Fresh and unworn as the sea that breaks languidly beside them

Fresh as a jewel found but yesterday

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail

Frightened like a child in the dark

Full-throated as the sea

Furious as eagles

G

Gazed like a star into the morning light

Glaring like noontide

Gleam like a diamond on a dancing girl

Glistening like threads of gold

Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid

Glittering like an aigrette of stars [aigrette = ornamental tuft of upright plumes]

Gone astray as a sheep that is lost

Gone like a glow on the cloud at the close of day

Gone like tenants that quit without warning

Gorgeous as the hues of heaven

Grazing through a circulating library as contentedly as cattle in a fresh meadow

Great scarlet poppies lay in drifts and heaps, like bodies fallen there in vain assault

H

Hair as harsh as tropical grass and gray as ashes

Hangs like a blue thread loosen'd from the sky

Hard, sharp, and glittering as a sword

Harnessed men, like beasts of burden, drew it to the river-side

Haunts you like the memory of some former happiness

He began to laugh with that sibilant laugh which resembles the hiss of a serpent [sibilant = producing a hissing sound]

He bent upon the lightning page like some rapt poet o'er his rhyme

He bolted down the stairs like a hare

He clatters like a windmill

He danced like a man in a swarm of hornets

He fell as falls some forest lion, fighting well

He fell down on my threshold like a wounded stag

He had acted exactly like an automaton

He lay as straight as a mummy

He lay like a warrior taking his rest

He lived as modestly as a hermit

He looked fagged and sallow, like the day [fagged = worked to exhaustion]

He looked with the bland, expressionless stare of an overgrown baby

He played with grave questions as a cat plays with a mouse

He radiated vigor and abundance like a happy child

He sat down quaking like a jelly

He saw disaster like a ghostly figure following her

He snatched furiously at breath like a tiger snatching at meat

He spoke with a uniformity of emphasis that made his words stand out like the raised type for the blind

He swayed in the sudden grip of anger

He sweeps the field of battle like a monsoon

He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed

He turned on me like a thunder-cloud

He turned white as chalk

He wandered restlessly through the house, like a prowling animal

He was as splendidly serious as a reformer

He was as steady as a clock

He was as wax in those clever hands

He was bold as the hawk

He was so weak now, like a shrunk cedar white with the hoar-frost

Hearts unfold like flowers before thee

Heavy was my heart as stone

Heeled like an avalanche to leeward

Her arms like slumber o'er my shoulders crept

Her banners like a thousand sunsets glow

Her beauty broke on him like some rare flower

Her beauty fervent as a fiery moon

Her breath is like a cloud

Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud

Her cheeks were wan and her eyes like coals

Her dusky cheek would burn like a poppy

Her expression changed with the rapidity of a kaleidoscope

Her eyes as bright as a blazing star

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair

Her eyes, glimmering star-like in her pale face

Her eyes were as a dove that sickeneth

Her face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat-field under a summer breeze

Her face collapsed as if it were a pricked balloon

Her face was as solemn as a mask

Her face was dull as lead

Her face was like a light

Her face was passionless, like those by sculptor graved for niches in a temple

Her hair dropped on her pallid cheeks, like sea-weed on a clam

Her hair hung down like summer twilight

Her hair shone like a nimbus

Her hair was like a coronet

Her hands are white as the virgin rose that she wore on her wedding day

Her hands like moonlight brush the keys

Her head dropped into her hands like a storm-broken flower

Her heart has grown icy as a fountain in the fall

Her holy love that like a vestal flame had burned

Her impulse came and went like fireflies in the dusk

Her lashes like fans upon her cheek

Her laugh is like a rainbow-tinted spray

Her lips are like two budded roses

Her lips like a lovely song that ripples as it flows

Her lips like twilight water

Her little lips are tremulous as brook-water is [tremulous = timid or fearful]

Her long black hair danced round her like a snake

Her mouth as sweet as a ripe fig

Her neck is like a stately tower

Her pale robe clinging to the grass seemed like a snake

Her pulses flutter'd like a dove

Her skin was as the bark of birches

Her sweetness halting like a tardy May

Her two white hands like swans on a frozen lake

Her voice cut like a knife

Her voice like mournful bells crying on the wind

Her voice was like the voice the stars had when they sang together

Her voice was rich and vibrant, like the middle notes of a 'cello

Her words sounding like wavelets on a summer shore

Herding his thoughts as a collie dog herds sheep

Here and there a solitary volume greeted him like a friend in a crowd of strange faces

Here in statue-like repose, an old wrinkled mountain rose

Hers was the loveliness of some tall white lily cut in marble, splendid but chill

His bashfulness melted like a spring frost

His brow bent like a cliff o'er his thoughts

His cheeks were furrowed and writhen like rain-washed crags [writhen = twisted]

His eyes blazed like deep forests

His eyes glowed like blue coals

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like moldy hay

His face burnt like a brand

His face was glad as dawn to me

His face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine

His fingers were knotted like a cord

His formal kiss fell chill as a flake of snow on the cheek

His fortune melted away like snow in a thaw

His glorious moments were strung like pearls upon a string

His indifference fell from him like a garment

His invectives and vituperations bite and flay like steel whips [invective = abusive language] [vituperation = abusive language]

His mind murmurs like a harp among the trees

His mind was like a lonely wild

His mind was like a summer sky

His nerves thrilled like throbbing violins

His retort was like a knife-cut across the sinews

His revenge descends perfect, sudden, like a curse from heaven

His spirits sank like a stone

His talk is like an incessant play of fireworks

His voice is as the thin faint song when the wind wearily sighs in the grass

His voice rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes

His voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds among the leaves

His whole soul wavered and shook like a wind-swept leaf

His words gave a curious satisfaction, as when a coin, tested, rings true gold

Hopeful as the break of day

How like a saint she sleeps

How like a winter hath my absence been

How like the sky she bends over her child

Howling in the wilderness like beasts

Huge as a hippopotamus

Humming-birds like lake of purple fire

Hushed as the grave

Hushed like a breathless lyre

I

I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew

I have heard the Hiddon People like the hum of swarming bees

I have seen the ravens flying, like banners of old wars

I saw a face bloom like a flower

I saw a river of men marching like a tide

I saw his senses swim dizzy as clouds

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

I was as sensitive as a barometer

I was no more than a straw on the torrent of his will

I will face thy wrath though it bite as a sword

Ideas which spread with the speed of light

Idle hopes, like empty shadows

Impassive as a statue

Impatient as the wind

Impregnable as Gibraltar

Impressive as a warrant of arrest for high treason

Incredible little white teeth, like snow shut in a rose

Infrequent carriages sped like mechanical toys guided by manikins

In honor spotless as unfallen snow

In that head of his a flame burnt that was like an altar-fire

In yonder cottage shines a light, far-gleaming like a gem

Instantly she revived like flowers in water

Intangible as a dream

It came and faded like a wreath of mist at eve

It cuts like knives, this air so chill

It drops away like water from a smooth statue

It pealed through her brain like a muffled bell

It poured upon her like a trembling flood

It racked his ears like an explosion of steam-whistles

It ran as clear as a trout-brook

It seems as motionless and still as the zenith in the skies

It set his memories humming like a hive of bees

It staggered the eye, like the sight of water running up hill

It stung like a frozen lash

It was as futile as to oppose an earthquake with argument

It was as if a door had been opened into a furnace, so the eyes blazed

It would collapse as if by enchantment

Its temples and its palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to Heaven

J

Jealousy, fierce as the fires

K

Kindle like an angel's wings the western skies in flame

Kindly mornings when autumn and winter seemed to go hand in hand like a happy aged couple

Kingdoms melt away like snow

L

Laboring like a giant

Languid streams that cross softly, slowly, with a sound like smothered weeping

Laughter like a beautiful bubble from the rosebud of baby-hood

Laughter like the sudden outburst of the glad bird in the tree-top

Lazy merchantmen that crawled like flies over the blue enamel of the sea

Leapt like a hunted stag

Let his frolic fancy play, like a happy child

Let in confusion like a whirling flood

Let thy mouth murmur like the doves

Life had been arrested, as the horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock [horologist = one who repairs watches]

Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road

Life sweet as perfume and pure as prayer

Light as a snowflake

Lights gleamed there like stars in a still sky

Like a ball of ice it glittered in a frozen sea of sky

Like a blade sent home to its scabbard

Like a blast from a horn

Like a blast from the suddenly opened door of a furnace

Like a blossom blown before a breeze, a white moon drifts before a shimmering sky

Like a bright window in a distant view

Like a caged lion shaking the bars of his prison

Like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep

Like a cloud of fire

Like a cold wind his words went through their flesh

Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue

Like a damp-handed auctioneer

Like a deaf and dumb man wondering what it was all about

Like a dew-drop, ill-fitted to sustain unkindly shocks

Like a dipping swallow the stout ship dashed through the storm

Like a distant star glimmering steadily in the darkness

Like a dream she vanished

Like a festooned girdle encircling the waist of a bride

Like a flower her red lips parted

Like a game in which the important part is to keep from laughing

Like a glow-worm golden

Like a golden-shielded army

Like a great express train, roaring, flashing, dashing head-long

Like a great fragment of the dawn it lay

Like a great ring of pure and endless light

Like a great tune to which the planets roll

Like a high and radiant ocean

Like a high-born maiden

Like a jewel every cottage casement showed

Like a joyless eye that finds no object worth its constancy

Like a knight worn out by conflict

Like a knot of daisies lay the hamlets on the hill

Like a lily in bloom

Like a living meteor

Like a locomotive-engine with unsound lungs

Like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting

Like a mirage, vague, dimly seen at first

Like a miser who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth [scanting = short]

Like a mist the music drifted from the silvery strings

Like a moral lighthouse in the midst of a dark and troubled sea

Like a murmur of the wind came a gentle sound of stillness

Like a noisy argument in a drawing-room

Like a pageant of the Golden Year, in rich memorial pomp the hours go by

Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished

Like a poet hidden

Like a river of molten amethyst

Like a rocket discharging a shower of golden stars

Like a rose embower'd in its own green leaves

Like a sea of upturned faces

Like a shadow never to be overtaken

Like a shadow on a fair sunlit landscape

Like a sheeted ghost

Like a ship tossed to and fro on the waves of life's sea

Like a slim bronze statue of Despair

Like a snow-flake lost in the ocean

Like a soul that wavers in the Valley of the Shadow

Like a stalled horse that breaks loose and goes at a gallop through the plain

Like a star, his love's pure face looked down

Like a star that dwelt apart

Like a star, unhasting, unresting

Like a stone thrown at random

Like a summer cloud, youth indeed has crept away

Like a summer-dried fountain

Like a swift eagle in the morning glare breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight

Like a thing at rest

Like a thing read in a book or remembered out of the faraway past

Like a tide of triumph through their veins, the red, rejoicing blood began to race

Like a triumphing fire the news was borne

Like a troop of boys let loose from school, the adventurers went by

Like a vaporous amethyst

Like a vision of the morning air

Like a voice from the unknown regions

Like a wandering star I fell through the deeps of desire

Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel

Like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed

Like a whirlwind they went past

Like a withered leaf the moon is blown across the bay

Like a world of sunshine

Like a yellow silken scarf the thick fog hangs

Like an alien ghost I stole away

Like an eagle clutching his prey, his arm swooped down

Like an eagle dallying with the wind

Like an engine of dread war, he set his shoulder to the mountain-side

Like an enraged tiger

Like an enthusiast leading about with him an indifferent tourist

Like an icy wave, a swift and tragic impression swept through him

Like an unbidden guest

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun

Like an unseen star of birth

Like an unwelcome thought

Like apparitions seen and gone

Like attempting to number the waves on the snore of a limitless sea

Like bells that waste the moments with their loudness

Like blasts of trumpets blown in wars

Like bright Apollo

Like bright lamps, the fabled apples glow

Like building castles in the air

Like bursting waves from the ocean

Like cliffs which have been rent asunder

Like clouds of gnats with perfect lineaments [lineaments = distinctive shape]

Like cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant

Like crystals of snow

Like dead lovers who died true

Like Death, who rides upon a thought, and makes his way through temple, tower, and palace

Like dew upon a sleeping flower

Like dining with a ghost

Like drawing nectar in a sieve

Like earth's decaying leaves

Like echoes from a hidden lyre

Like echoes from an antenatal dream

Like fixed eyes, whence the dear light of sense and thought has fled

Like footsteps upon wool

Like fragrance from dead flowers

Like ghosts, from an enchanter fleeing

Like ghosts the sentries come and go

Like golden boats on a sunny sea

Like great black birds, the demons haunt the woods

Like green waves on the sea

Like having to taste a hundred exquisite dishes in a single meal

Like Heaven's free breath, which he who grasps can hold not

Like helpless birds in the warm nest

Like iridescent bubbles floating on a foul stream

Like kindred drops mingled into one

Like laying a burden on the back of a moth

Like lead his feet were

Like leaves in wintry weather

Like leviathans afloat

Like lighting a candle to the sun

Like making a mountain out of a mole-hill

Like mariners pulling the life-boat

Like mice that steal in and out as if they feared the light

Like mountain over mountain huddled

Like mountain streams we meet and part

Like music on the water

Like notes which die when born, but still haunt the echoes of the hill

Like oceans of liquid silver

Like one pale star against the dusk, a single diamond on her brow gleamed with imprisoned fire

Like one who halts with tired wings

Like one who talks of what he loves in dream

Like organ music came the deep reply

Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream

Like phantoms gathered by the sick imagination

Like planets in the sky

Like pouring oil on troubled waters

Like roses that in deserts bloom and die

Like rowing upstream against a strong downward current

Like scents from a twilight garden

Like separated souls

Like serpents struggling in a vulture's grasp