Chapter 13 of 19 · 3998 words · ~20 min read

Part 13

The river shouted as ever its cry of joy over the vitality of life, like a spirited boy before the face of inscrutable nature

The roofs with their gables like hoods

The roses lie upon the grass like little shreds of crimson silk

The satire of the word cut like a knife

The scullion with face shining like his pans

The sea reeled round like a wine-vat splashing

The sea-song of the trampling waves is as muffled bells

The sea spread out like a wrinkled marble floor

The sea, that gleamed still, like a myriad-petaled rose

The sea was as untroubled as the turquoise vault which it reflected

The setting of the sun is like a word of peace

The sharp hail rattles against the panes and melts on my cheeks like tears

The ships, like sheeted phantoms coming and going

The silence seemed to crush to earth like a great looking-glass and shiver into a million pieces

The silvery morning like a tranquil vision fills the world

The sky burned like a heated opal

The sky gleamed with the hardness and brilliancy of blue enamel

The sky was as a shield that caught the stain of blood and battle from the dying sun

The sky was clear and blue, and the air as soft as milk

The sky was like a peach

The sky where stars like lilies white and fair shine through the mists

The solid air around me there heaved like a roaring ocean

The solid mountains gleamed like the unsteady sea

The soul is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life

The sound is like a noon-day gale

The sound is like a silver-fountain that springeth in a golden basin

The sound of a thousand tears, like softly pattering wings

The sound of your running feet that like the sea-hoofs beat

The spear-tongued lightning slipped like a snake

The Spring breaks like a bird

The stacks of corn in brown array, like tattered wigwams on the plain

The stars come down and trembling glow like blossoms on the waves below

The stars lay on the lapis-lazuli sky like white flower-petals on still deep water [lapis-lazuli = opaque to translucent blue, violet-blue, or greenish-blue gemstone]

The stars pale and silent as a seer

The strange cold sense of aloofness that had numbed her senses suddenly gave way like snow melting in the spring

The sudden thought of your face is like a wound when it comes unsought

The sun, like a great dragon, writhes in gold

The sun on the sea-wave lies white as the moon

The surf was like the advancing lines of an unknown enemy flinging itself upon the shore

The terrible past lay afar, like a dream left behind in the night

The tide was in the salt-weed, and like a knife it tore

The time, gliding like a dream

The torrent from the hills leaped down their rocky stairways like wild steeds

The tree whose plumed boughs are soft as wings of birds

The uproar and contention pierced him like arrows

The veiled future bowed before me like a vision of promise

The velvet grass that is like padding to earth's meager ribs

The villa dips its foot in the lake, smiling at its reflection like a bather lingering on the brink

The voice of Fate, crying like some old Bellman through the world

The voice that rang in the night like a bugle call

The warm kindling blood burned her cheeks like the breath of a hot wind

The waves were rolling in, long and lazy, like sea-worn travelers

The whole truth, naked, cold, and fatal as a patriot's blade

The wind all round their ears hissed like a flight of white-winged geese

The wind comes and it draws its length along like the genii from the earthen pot

The wine flows like blood

The woman seemed like a thing of stone

The words kept ringing in my ears like the tolling of a bell

The words of the wise fall like the tolling of sweet, grave bells upon the soul

The world had vanished like a phantasmagoria

The world is bitter as a tear

The world is in a simmer, like a sea

The world wavers within its circle like a dream

The years stretched before her like some vast blank page out to receive the record of her toil

The years vanished like a May snowdrift

The yellow apples glowed like fire

Their glances met like crossed swords

Their joy like sunshine deep and broad falls on my heart

Their minds rested upon the thought, as chasing butterflies might rest together on a flower

Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss

Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting

Then fall unheeded like the faded flower

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

Then it swelled out to rich and glorious harmonies like a full orchestra playing under the sea

Then the lover sighing like furnace

Theories sprouted in his mind like mushrooms

There is an air about you like the air that folds a star

There, like a bird, it sits and sings

There seemed to brood in the air a quiet benevolence of a Father watching His myriad children at play

There she soars like a seraph

There she stood straight as a lily on its stem

There slowly rose to sight, a country like a dragon fast asleep

There streamed into the air the sweet smell of crushed grass, as though many fields had been pressed between giant's fingers and so had been left

These eyes like stars have led me

These final words snapped like a whip-lash

These thoughts pierced me like thorns

They are as cruel as creeping tigers

They are as white foam on the swept sands

They are as white swans in the dusk, thy white hands

They are painted sharp as death

They broke into pieces and fell on the ground, like a silvery, shimmering shower of hail

They dropped like panthers

They fly like spray

They had hands like claws

They had slipped away like visions

They have as many principles as a fish has bones

They have faces like flowers

They hurried down like plovers that have heard the call [plovers = wading birds]

They look like rose-buds filled with snow

They seem like swarming flies, the crowd of little men

They seemed like floating flowers

They shine as sweet as simple doves

They stand like solitary mountain forms on some hard, perfectly transparent day

They vanished like the shapes that float upon a summer's dream

Thick as wind-blown leaves innumerable

Thickly the flakes drive past, each like a childish ghost

Thine eyes like two twin stars shining

This life is like a bubble blown up in the air

This love that dwells like moonlight in your face

This thought is as death

This tower rose in the sunset like a prayer

Those ancestral themes past which so many generations have slept like sea-going winds over pastures

Those death-like eyes, unconscious of the sun

Those eyelids folded like a white rose-leaf

Those eyes like bridal beacons shine

Thou art to me but as a wave of the wild sea

Thou as heaven art fair and young

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea

Thou must wither like a rose

Thou shalt be as free as mountain winds

Thou wouldst weep tears bitter as blood

Though bright as silver the meridian beams shine

Though thou be black as night

Thoughts vague as the fitful breeze

Three-cornered notes fly about like butterflies

Through the forest, like a fairy dream through some dark mind, the ferns in branching beauty stream

Through the moonlit trees, like ghosts of sounds haunting the moonlight, stole the faint tinkle of a guitar

Through the riot of his senses, like a silver blaze, ran the legend

Thy beauty like a beast it bites

Thy brown benignant eyes have sudden gleams of gladness and surprise, like woodland brooks that cross a sunlit spot

Thy carven columns must have grown by magic, like a dream in stone

Thy favors are but like the wind that kisses everything it meets

Thy heart is light as a leaf of a tree

Thy name burns like a gray and flickering candle flame

Thy name will be as honey on men's lips

Till death like sleep might steal on me

Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven

Time drops in decay, like a candle burnt out

Time like a pulse shakes fierce

To drag life on, which like a heavy chain lengthens behind with many a link of pain

To forsake as the trees drop their leaves in autumn

Toys with smooth trifles like a child at play

Transitory as clouds without substance

Transparent like a shining sun

Tree and shrub altered their values and became transmuted to silver sentinels

Trees that spread their forked boughs like a stag's antlers

Trembling like an aspen-leaf

Truths which forever shine as fixed stars

Turning easily and securely as on a perfect axle

U

Unbends like a loosened bow

Unbreakable as iron

Unconscious as an oak-tree of its growth

Under the willow-tree glimmered her face like a foam-flake drifting over the sea

Unheralded, like some tornado loosed out of the brooding hills, it came to pass

Unknown, like a seed in fallow ground, was the germ of a plan

Unmoving as a tombstone

Untameable as flies

Unutterable things pressing on my soul like a pent-up storm craving for outlet

Upcast like foam of the effacing tide

Uplifting the soul as on dovelike wings

Uplifting their stony peaks around us like the walls and turrets of a gigantic fortress

Urgent as the seas

Uttering wild cries like a creature in pain

V

Vague as a dream

Vague thoughts that stream shapelessly through her mind like long sad vapors through the twilight sky

Vanish into thin air, like ghosts at the cockcrow

Vanished like snow when comes a thaw

Vanished like vapor before the sun

Vibrations set quivering like harp strings struck by the hand of a master

Vociferous praise following like a noisy wave

W

Walking somewhat unsteadily like a blind man feeling his way

Waves glittered and danced on all sides like millions of diamonds

We left her and retraced our steps like faithless hounds

Weak and frail like the vapor of a vale

Wearing their wounds like stars

Weary wind, who wanderest like the world's rejected guest

When a draft might puff them out like a guttering candle [guttering = To melt through the side of the hollow in a candle formed by a burning wick; to burn low and unsteadily; flicker]

When arm in arm they both came swiftly running, like a pair of turtle-doves that could not live asunder day or night

When cards, invitations, and three-corn'd notes fly about like white butterflies

When she died, her breath whistled like the wind in a keyhole

When the fever pierced me like a knife

Where a lamp of deathless beauty shines like a beacon

Where heroes die as leaves fall

Where the intricate wheels of trade are grinding on, like a mill

Where the source of the waters is fine as a thread

Whilst the lagging hours of the day went by like windless clouds o'er a tender sky

Whistled sharply in the air like a handful of vipers

White as a ghost from darkness

White as chalk

White as dove or lily, or spirit of the light

White as the driven snow

White as the moon's white flame

White as the sea-bird's wing

White clouds like daisies

White hands she moves like swimming swans

White hands through her hair, like white doves going into the shadow of a wood

White like flame

White sails of sloops like specters

Whose bodies are as strong as alabaster

Whose hair was as gold raiment on a king

Whose laugh moves like a bat through silent haunted woods

Whose little eyes glow like the sparks of fire

Whose music like a robe of living light reclothed each new-born age

Windy speech which hits all around the mark like a drunken carpenter

Winged like an arrow to its mark

With a sting like a scorpion

With all the complacency of a homeless cat

With an angry broken roar, like billows on an unseen shore, their fury burst

With hate darkling as the swift winter hail

With music sweet as love

With sounds like breakers

With strength like steel

With the whisper of leaves in one's ear

With words like honey melting from the comb

Wits as sharp as gimlets [gimlet = small hand tool for boring holes]

Women with tongues like polar needles

Words as fresh as spring verdure [verdure = lush greenness of flourishing vegetation]

Words as soft as rain

Words like the gossamer film of the summer

Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd

Words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs overhead

Wordsworth, thy music like a river rolls

Worthless like the conjurer's gold

Wrangle over details like a grasping pawnbroker

Wrinkled and scored like a dried apple

Writhing with an intensity that burnt like a steady flame

Y

Yielding like melted snow

Yonder flimsy crescent, bent like an archer's bow above the snowy summit

You are as gloomy to-night as an undertaker out of employment

You are as hard as stone

You gave me such chill embraces as the snow-covered heights receive from clouds

Your blood is red like wine

Your charms lay like metals in a mine

Your eyes are like fantastic moons that shiver in some stagnant lake

Your eyes as blue as violets

Your eyes they were green and gray like an April day

Your frail fancies are swallowed up, like chance flowers flung upon the river's current

Your hair was golden as tints of sunrise

Your heart is as dry as a reed

Your locks are like the raven

Your love shall fall about me like sweet rain

Your step's like the rain to summer vexed farmer

Your thoughts are buzzing like a swarm of bees

Your tongue is like a scarlet snake

Your voice had a quaver in it just like the linnet [linnet = small finch]

Youth like a summer morn

SECTION IX

CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES

A

A most extraordinary idea!

A thousand hopes for your success

Accept my best wishes

All that is conjecture

Allow me to congratulate you

An unfortunate comparison, don't you think?

And even if it were so?

And how am I to thank you?

And in the end, what are you going to make of it?

And yet the explanation does not wholly satisfy me

Apparently I was wrong

Are we wandering from the point?

Are you a trifle--bored?

Are you fully reconciled?

Are you not complicating the question?

Are you prepared to go to that length?

Are you still obdurate? [obdurate = Hardened in wrongdoing; stubbornly impenitent]

As it happens, your conjecture is right

Assuredly I do

At first blush it may seem fantastic

B

Banish such thoughts

But are you not taking a slightly one-sided point of view?

But consider for a moment

But I look at the practical side

But I wander from my point

But now I'll confide something to you

But perhaps I'm hardly fair when I say that

But seriously speaking, what is the use of it?

But surely that is inconsistent

But that's a tremendous hazard

But the thing is simply impossible

But there's one thing you haven't said

But, wait, you haven't heard the end

But what do you yourself think about it?

But who could foresee what was going to happen?

But you are open to persuasion?

But you do not know for certain

But you must tell me more

By a curious chance, I know it very well

By no means desirable, I think

C

Can I persuade you?

Can you imagine anything so horrible?

Certain circumstances make it undesirable

Certainly not, if it displeases you

Certainly, with the greatest pleasure

Come, where's your sense of humor?

Consult me when you want me--at any time

D

Decidedly so

Dine with me to-morrow night?--if you are free?

Do I presume too much?

Do I seem very ungenerous?

Do not misunderstand me

Do not the circumstances justify it?

Don't be so dismal, please

Don't delude yourself

Don't let me encroach on your good nature

Don't think I am unappreciative of your kindness

Do you attach any particular meaning to that?

Do you know, I envy you that

Do you know what his chief interests are now?

Do you mind my making a suggestion?

Do you press me to tell?

Do you really regard him as a serious antagonist?

Do you think there is anything ominous in it?

Does it please you so tremendously?

Does it seem incredible?

E

Either way is perplexing

Eminently proper, I think

Everyone looks at it differently

Excuse my bluntness

F

Fanciful, I should say

For the simplest of reasons

Forgive me if I seem disobliging

Fortunate, to say the least

Frankly, I don't see why it should

Frugal to a degree

Fulsome praise, I call it

G

Give me your sympathy and counsel

Glorious to contemplate

Good! that is at least something

Gratifying, I am sure

H

Happily there are exceptions to every rule

Has it really come to that?

Have I incurred your displeasure?

Have you any rooted objection to it?

Have you anything definite in your mind?

Have you reflected what the consequences might be to yourself?

He does me too much honor

He feels it acutely

He has a queer conception of the proprieties

He is a poor dissembler [dissemble = conceal behind a false appearance]

He is anything but obtuse

He is so ludicrously wrong

He is the most guileless of men

He was so extremely susceptible

He writes uncommonly clever letters

Heaven forbid that I should wound your sensibility

His sense of humor is unquenchable

How amiable you are to say so

How can I tell you how much I have enjoyed it all?

How can I thank you?

How can you be so unjust?

How delightful to meet you

How does the idea appeal to you?

How droll you are!

How extraordinary!

How intensely interesting!

How perfectly delightful!

How utterly abominable

How very agreeable this is!

How very interesting

How very surprising

How well you do it!

However, I should like to hear your views

Human nature interests me very much indeed

I

I admire your foresight

I admit it most gratefully

I agree--at least, I suppose I do

I agree that something ought to be done

I always welcome criticism so long as it is sincere

I am absolutely bewildered

I am afraid I am not familiar enough with the subject

I am afraid I cannot suggest an alternative

I am afraid I've allowed you to tire yourself

I am afraid I must confess my ignorance

I am afraid you will call me a sentimentalist

I am always glad to do anything to please you

I am anxious to discharge the very onerous debt I owe you

I am appealing to your sense of humor

I am at your service

I am bound to secrecy

I am compelled to, unluckily

I am curious to learn what his motive was

I am deeply flattered and grateful

I am delighted to hear you say so

I am dumb with admiration

I am entirely at your disposal

I am extremely glad you approve of it

I am far from believing the maxim

I am fortunate in being able to do you a service

I am glad to be able to think that

I am glad to have had this talk with you

I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty

I am glad you can see it in that way

I am glad you feel so deeply about it

I am giving you well-deserved praise

I am going to make a confession

I am grateful for your good opinion

I am honestly indignant

I am, I confess, a little discouraged

I am in a chastened mood

I am inclined to agree with you

I am incredulous

I am indebted to you for the suggestion

I am listening--I was about to propose

I am lost in admiration

I am luckily disengaged to-day

I am more grieved than I can tell you

I am naturally overjoyed

I am not a person of prejudices

I am not an alarmist

I am not as unreasonable as you suppose

I am not at all in the secret of his ambitions

I am not capable of unraveling it

I am not going into sordid details

I am not going to let you evade the question

I am not going to pay you any idle compliments

I am not impervious to the obligations involved

I am not in sympathy with it

I am not in the least surprised

I am not inquisitive

I am not prepared to say

I am not sure that I can manage it

I am not vindictive

I am overjoyed to hear you say so

I am perfectly aware of what I am saying

I am persuaded by your candor

I am quite convinced of that

I am quite discomfited

I am quite interested to see what you will do

I am quite ready to be convinced

I am rather of the opinion that I was mistaken

I am ready to make great allowances

I am really afraid I don't know

I am really gregarious

I am sensible of the flattery

I am seriously annoyed with myself about it

I am so glad you think that

I am so sorry--so very sorry

I am sorry to disillusionize you

I am sorry to interrupt this interesting discussion

I am sorry to say it is impossible

I am speaking plainly

I am still a little of an idealist

I am suppressing many of the details

I am sure it sounds very strange to you

I am sure you could pay me no higher compliment

I am sure you will hear me out

I am surprised, I confess

I am sustained by the prospect of a good dinner

I am vastly obliged to you

I am vastly your debtor for the information

I am very far from being a fanatic

I am very glad of this opportunity

I am very grateful--very much flattered

I am wholly in agreement with you

I am willing to accept all the consequences

I am wonderfully well

I am wondering if I may dare ask you a very personal question?

I am your creditor unawares

I anticipate your argument

I appreciate your motives

I assure you it is most painful to me

I assure you my knowledge of it is limited

I bear no malice about that

I beg your indulgence

I beg your pardon, but you take it too seriously

I brazenly confess it

I can easily understand your astonishment

I can explain the apparent contradiction

I can find no satisfaction in it

I can hardly agree with you there

I can never be sufficiently grateful

I can only tell you the bare facts

I can scarcely accept the offer

I can scarcely boast that honor

I can scarcely imagine anything more disagreeable

I can sympathize with you

I cannot altogether acquit myself of interested motives

I cannot explain it even to myself

I cannot find much real satisfaction in it

I cannot forbear to press my advantage

I cannot imagine what you mean

I cannot precisely determine

I can't pretend to make a jest of what I'm going to say

I cannot say definitely at the moment

I cannot say that in fact it is always so

I cannot see how you draw that conclusion

I cannot thank you enough for all your consideration

I compliment you on your good sense

I confess, I find it difficult