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Home  »  A Dictionary of Similes  »  Body

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

Body

The body is like a piano, and happiness is like music. It is needful to have the instrument in good order.
—Henry Ward Beecher

Man’s Body’s like a House: His greater Bones,
Are the maine Timber; And the lesser ones,
Are smaller Splints: His Ribs are Laths, daubed ore,
Plaister’d with flesh and bloud: His Mouth’s the Doore:
His Throat’s the narrow Entry: And his Heart
Is the Great Chamber, full of curious Art:
His Midreife is a large partition-Wall,
’Twixt the Great Chamber, and the spacious Hall:
His Stomacke is the Kitchin, where the Meate
Is often but half sod, for want of Heate:
His Spleen’s a Vessell, Nature does allott
To take the skimme, that rises from the Pott:
His Lungs are like the Bellowes that respire
In ev’ry office, quickning ev’ry Fire:
His Nose, the Chimney is, whereby are vented
Such Fumes, as with the Bellowes are augmented:
His Bowels are the Sinke, whose part’s to dreine
All noysome filth, and keep the Kitchin cleane:
His Eyes like Christian Windowes cleare and bright
Lets in the Object and lets out the Sight:
And as the Timber is, or great or small,
Or strong or weake; ’tis apt to stand or fall.
—Francis Quarles