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

Abraham Cowley

Active as some mind that turns a sphere.

Dark as the grave.

Fixt as an island ’gainst the waves and wind.

Friendship is less apparent when too nigh,
Like objects when they touch the eye.

Love, like a greedy hawk, if we give way,
Does over-gorge himself with his own prey.

Mute as the grave.

Like winter-earth, naked.

Spiteful as the light.

Still as old Chaos, before Motion’s birth.

As swift and fierce as tempest from the north.

Swift as the wings of Morn.

Teeth like falling snow
For white, were placed in a double row.

Undisturb’d as Death.

Like painted lamps they shine unwasted.

Watchful as spirits.

Wit’s like a luxuriant vine;
Unless to virtue’s prop it join,
Firm and erect toward Heaven bound,
Though it with beauteous leaves and pleasant fruit be crown’d
It lies, deformed and rotting, on the ground.

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