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

Richard Hovey

Aware as the air of the light that fills full all of its girth.

Bald as a Greek monk.

Calm as a Mandarin.

Clear as the glisten of dew on the brier.

Cool as the call of a wind on the still of the sea.

Cosy as a dormouse.

Faint as the dim ghost of a dream-sea.

Fresh and fine as a spring in winter.

Frolic as the snow.

Glad as the clay-red
Blaring of battle-horns.

Hushed, as in waiting for a bird to sing.

Idleness feeds on the empty day
As a chameleon on the air.

Intense as the cling of the sun to the lips of the earth.

Joy like the joy of a leaf that unfolds in the sun;
Joy like the joy of a child in the borders of sleep.

Light as vapor.

Light like a sunbeam shattered into mist.

Light-hearted as a boy.

Lithe as willow.

Rustling like the secret darkness of the soul.

Shrieks like laughter in the demoned hills.

Glide as silent as a Dryad
That disappears among the trees.

As simple as a saint might bathe in lakes of prayer.

Soft as a dream of beauty.

Spotless as a Glastonbury nun.

Spotless as Saint Dorothy.

Sure as a horse when he knows his rider.

Sweet as the hills.

A leap and a thrill like the flash of a weaver’s shuttle,
Swift and sudden and sure.

Wild as a tameless horse of Tartary.

Wilful as the wind.