As warm as …
A surprising simile, something as ordinary and comforting as warm tea, here poured differently to describe a stream of blood. ...
As relaxing as …
Casaubon is a serious-minded studious individual pursuing research so recondite that only he really understands why he's doing it. When...
As secular as…
A refreshing simile, surprising in its flavour, likening secularity to ice cream.
'Father saw himself as part of...
The taste of brass
You can feel it can't you - that cold-surface metallic sensation in your mouth?
John Keats fell in love and...
Petrified sea
A fine image of mountains appearing like rearing waves petrified in mid air.
... the mountains that...
Dull as suet pudding
A charming alternative to ‘dull as ditchwater’. I also like the last affirmative sentence.
“Your brother is...
Wrinkled like a raisin
It's obvious when you read it, but we don't tend to use 'wrinkled like a raisin' despite its pleasing alliteration....
Worrying like a butter churn
You've surely spent moments and even nights of your life in mind-churning worry, as described here by a women who...
A sack of scrap iron
A description of a huge, lumbering imperial frame, this referring to Tsar Nicholas I who succeeded his brother Alexander.
...
Peaches rolling together
A delicate and charming way to convey mutual attraction. It sounds so soft, so harmless and so sweet, yet it...
As sharp as …
A flint-chip razor simile for a beak's sharpness. Elsewhere in Tarka we encounter birds skewering frogs through the head with their...
As the falcon flies
Even the rhythm of this simile conveys something of a great bird's single, confident swoop to land precisely on a...
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