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Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

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The name that cuts into my soul like a knife The nervous little train winding its way like a jointed reptile The new ferns were spread upon the earth like some lacy coverlet The night like a battle-broken host is driven before The night yawned like a foul wind The ocean swelled like an undulating mirror of the bowl of heaven The old books look somewhat pathetically from the shelves, like aged dogs wondering why no one takes them for a walk The old infamy will pop into daylight like a toad out of fissure in the rock The penalty falls like a thunderbolt from heaven The phrase was like a spear-thrust The pine trees waved as waves a woman's hair The place was like some enchanted town of palaces The plains to northward change their color like the shimmering necks of doves The poppy burned like a crimson ember The prime of man has waxed like cedars The public press would chatter and make odd ambiguous sounds like a shipload of monkeys in a storm The purple heather rolls like dumb thunder The rainbows flashed like fire The river shouted as ever its cry of joy over the vitality of life, like a spirited boy before the face of inscrutable nature The roofs with their gables like hoods The roses lie upon the grass like little shreds of crimson silk The satire of the word cut like a knife The scullion with face shining like his pans The sea reeled round like a wine-vat splashing The sea-song of the trampling waves is as muffled bells The sea spread out like a wrinkled marble floor The sea, that gleamed still, like a myriad-petaled rose The sea was as untroubled as the turquoise vault which it reflected The setting of the sun is like a word of peace The sharp hail rattles against the panes and melts on my cheeks like tears The ships, like sheeted phantoms coming and going The silence seemed to crush to earth like a great looking-glass and shiver into a million pieces The silvery morning like a tranquil vision fills the world The sky burned like a heated opal The sky gleamed with the hardness and brilliancy of blue enamel The sky was as a shield that caught the stain of blood and battle from the dying sun The sky was clear and blue, and the air as soft as milk The sky was like a peach The sky where stars like lilies white and fair shine through the mists The solid air around me there heaved like a roaring ocean The solid mountains gleamed like the unsteady sea The soul is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life The sound is like a noon-day gale The sound is like a silver-fountain that springeth in a golden basin The sound of a thousand tears, like softly pattering wings The sound of your running feet that like the sea-hoofs beat The spear-tongued lightning slipped like a snake The Spring breaks like a bird The stacks of corn in brown array, like tattered wigwams on the plain The stars come down and trembling glow like blossoms on the waves below The stars lay on the lapis-lazuli sky like white flower-petals on still deep water [lapis-lazuli = opaque to translucent blue, violet-blue, or greenish-blue gemstone] The stars pale and silent as a seer The strange cold sense of aloofness that had numbed her senses suddenly gave way like snow melting in the spring The sudden thought of your face is like a wound when it comes unsought The sun, like a great dragon, writhes in gold The sun on the sea-wave lies white as the moon The surf was like the advancing lines of an unknown enemy flinging itself upon the shore The terrible past lay afar, like a dream left behind in the night The tide was in the salt-weed, and like a knife it tore The time, gliding like a dream The torrent from the hills leaped down their rocky stairways like wild steeds The tree whose plumed boughs are soft as wings of birds The uproar and contention pierced him like arrows The veiled future bowed before me like a vision of promise The velvet grass that is like padding to earth's meager ribs The villa dips its foot in the lake, smiling at its reflection like a bather lingering on the brink The voice of Fate, crying like some old Bellman through the world The voice that rang in the night like a bugle call The warm kindling blood burned her cheeks like the breath of a hot wind The waves were rolling in, long and lazy, like sea-worn travelers The whole truth, naked, cold, and fatal as a patriot's blade The wind all round their ears hissed like a flight of white-winged geese The wind comes and it draws its length along like the genii from the earthen pot The wine flows like blood The woman seemed like a thing of stone The words kept ringing in my ears like the tolling of a bell The words of the wise fall like the tolling of sweet, grave bells upon the soul The world had vanished like a phantasmagoria The world is bitter as a tear The world is in a simmer, like a sea The world wavers within its circle like a dream The years stretched before her like some vast blank page out to receive the record of her toil The years vanished like a May snowdrift The yellow apples glowed like fire Their glances met like crossed swords Their joy like sunshine deep and broad falls on my heart Their minds rested upon the thought, as chasing butterflies might rest together on a flower Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting Then fall unheeded like the faded flower Then felt I like some watcher of the skies Then it swelled out to rich and glorious harmonies like a full orchestra playing under the sea Then the lover sighing like furnace <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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