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Home  »  A Dictionary of Similes  »  Sidney Lanier

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

Sidney Lanier

Slant yellow beam …
Like a lane into Heaven that leads from a dream.

My brain is beating like the heart of Haste.

Break as a bubble o’er-blown in a dream.

Deep as devils grope.

Flame like torch-flames in the passionate air.

Hide like gentle nuns from human eyes.

Keen like a spear.

Livid as Lazarus lately from death.

Red as a beacon the wind has upblown.

Rose red as a beacon the wind had upblown.

Soft as a dying violet-breath.

My soul is like the oar that momently
Dies in a desperate stress beneath the wave,
Then glitters out again and sweeps the sea:
Each second I’m new-born from some new grave.

Trembles like a harp full strung.

A-tremble like a new-born thing.

Fell a-trembling like as the lips of lady that forth falters yes.

Wistfully,
Like to some maiden spirit pausing pale,
New-wing’d, yet fain to sail
Above the serene gulf to where a bridegroom soul
Calls o’er the soft horizon.