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

Edgar Allan Poe

Bounded like a madman.

Children are never too tender to be whipped; like tough beef-steaks, the more you beat them the more tender they become.

Dark as the caves wherein earth’s thunders groan.

Declined—like shadow in the dying of the day.

Departed as a shadow.

The eye, like a shattered mirror, multiplies the images of its sorrow.

Luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda.

Glide to and fro like ghosts of buried centuries.

Glistened, like a globe of burnished gold.

Holy as the watch of an invisible spirit.

Increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier in courage.

Lines as vivid and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian medals.

A melancholy strain,
Like the low moaning of the distant sea.

Pure as the wishes breathed in prayer.

Shook as the quivering plumes upon the hearse.

Shook like a spied spy.

Shriek … such as might have risen only out of hell.

Sighed as if a deadly burthen had been taken from her breast.

Swollen immensely, like that of a man who has been drowned and lain under water for many weeks.

True as the Pentateuch.

Various as the hues of a rainbow.