Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Bright as any star in heaven.Bright as at creation’s day.Thy song is changeful as yon starry frame,
End and beginning evermore the same.Curious as a fish.The maidens droop, like meadow-grass when mown.Fixed as a sculptured figure.Free as the hawk.Fresh as a peach.Gay,
Like to a light and brilliant butterfly,
Around a dusky flower.Glitters like a star.Glitter like heaven new-born.I glow as with new wine.Indolent as an old bachelor.Melancholy as a slighted damsel.A man’s name is not like a mantle, which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which like the skin has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.Pale as brow of one on whom the axe is falling.Pure like the heart of water,
You are pure like the core of earth.Quick as a dart.Raging like an unexpected fire.Roar as by the evil one possessed.Rush, like mountain torrent, swollen by the melted snow.Scattered like mown and withered grass.Solemn as an owl.Songs are like painted window-panes!
In darkness wrapped the church remains,
If from the market-place we view it;
But let us now inside repair,
And greet the holy chapel there!
At once the whole seems clear and bright,
Each ornament is bathed in light,
And fraught with meaning to the sight.He stood … stiff as a marble statue.Sweeps like spectral shade.Swift as vision.Translations are like busy matchmakers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.Vanish like an echo or a dream.
