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

Barren

Barren as a New Hampshire granite hill.
—Anonymous

Barren as a South African veldt.
—Anonymous

Barren as winter rain.
—Alfred Austin

Barren as a continent of Brandenburg sand.
—Thomas Carlyle

Barren as routine.
—Gilbert K. Chesterton

Barren as the wind.
—Ebenezer Elliott

A life as barren … as is the dust to which that life doth tend.
—George Herbert

Barren as a desolate moor.
—Gerald Massey

Barren as a pelican-beach.
—Herman Melville

Barren as a Pope’s Bull.
—Sydney Munden

Barren as death.
—John Ruskin

Brain as barren
As banks of Libya.
—William Shakespeare

Barren as a rainy day.
—Alexander Smith

Barren as crime.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Barren as a stock-fish.
—John Taylor

Barren as the sea’s bare sands.
—Samuel Waddington