Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Blossomed like a wreath.Bound,
Like doomsday prisoned underground.Breasts half-globed
Like folded lilies deepset in the stream.Calm as Force.Clamorous like mill-waters, at wild play.Close as the young wheat.Cold as when death’s foot shall pass.Covers it, like a stone covered in grass.Desirous as the nights of youth.Droop like a shower-beaten flower.The drouth
Is like sand spread within my mouth.With her mouth she was eloquent,
As if to her ear an angel bent,
Whispering her that she might say
The word which wipes all tears away.Exquisite
Like fiery chrysoprase in deep basalt.Eyes
As of the sky and sea on a gray day.Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even.Faint as shed flowers.Fair as the flowers that maidens pluck for an hour’s delight.And no star
Is from thy mortal path so far
As streets where childhood knew the way.Fitful like the talking of trees.Flew as the spirit flies from the dead.A glance like water brimming with the sky or hyacinth-light where forest-shadows fall.Glints … like a lance that flees.Gnawed as with a file.Hollow like a breathing shell.Hustle about me like pent-up air.Lost like stars beyond dark trees.Lovely as a queen.Low as Hell.Low like dirge-wail or requiem they murmured.Mute, like a flame.Pale as transparent Psyche-wings.Quivered like forest-leaves.Red as from the broken heart.Rested in strange wise,
As when some creature utterly outworn
Sinks into bed and lies.Shaken like a press of spears.Sheer as chaos to the irrevocable past.Shelters him
As birds within the green shade of the grove.Shook like an autumn leaf.Side by side,
Like tombs of pilgrims that have died
About the Holy Sepulchre.Slid like a corpse afloat.Sobbed like tears at the heart of May.Soft as spring.As the waifs cast up by the sea change with the changing season, so the tides of the soul throw up their changing drift on the sand, but the sea beyond is one for ever.Spins like a fretful midge.Splashed like a sweet star-spray.Silence spread … like water that a pebble stirs.Stark as the winter snow.Still, as one who broods or grieves.Sudden like a pool that once gave back
Your image, but now drowns it and is clear
Again.Swoon
Into the silence languidly
As a tune into a tune.Beautiful thoughts that fall like rain
Are droughts for pleasure or balm for pain.Her tongue, which rosily
Peeped as a piercing bud between her lips.Trackless as the immemorable hour
When birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new.Turns as a bucket turns in a well.Wail like echoes from the sea.Watchful, as a leopard is.Yellow, like ripe corn.Young as Truth.
