Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Brief

Briefer than the twinkling of an eye.
—Anonymous

Brief as the song
Of the wood dove.
—Lord De Tabley

Brief
As sunset clouds in heaven.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Brief as sparkles from the flint.
—Thomas Hood

Brief as time.
—Ben Jonson

As brief as a dragon-fly’s repose.
—James Russell Lowell

As brief as the wave’s poise before it breaks in pearls.
—James Russell Lowell

Brief, as the sunshine scattered over the plains.
—Mimnermus

Brief as a dream.
—Ptah-hotep

As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti

Brief as the lightning in the collied night.
—William Shakespeare

Brief like a signal.
—Robert Louis Stevenson

Brief as the word strong sorrow saith.
—Robert Louis Stevenson

Brief as a broken song.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Thou art brief as a glitter of sand ’twist tide and tide.
—William Watson

Brief and tremulous as a passing shadow.
—William Winter