I
I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew
I have heard the Hiddon People like the hum of swarming bees
I have seen the ravens flying, like banners of old wars
I saw a face bloom like a flower
I saw a river of men marching like a tide
I saw his senses swim dizzy as clouds
I wander'd lonely as a cloud
I was as sensitive as a barometer
I was no more than a straw on the torrent of his will
I will face thy wrath though it bite as a sword
Ideas which spread with the speed of light
Idle hopes, like empty shadows
Impassive as a statue
Impatient as the wind
Impregnable as Gibraltar
Impressive as a warrant of arrest for high treason
Incredible little white teeth, like snow shut in a rose
Infrequent carriages sped like mechanical toys guided by manikins
In honor spotless as unfallen snow
In that head of his a flame burnt that was like an altar-fire
In yonder cottage shines a light, far-gleaming like a gem
Instantly she revived like flowers in water
Intangible as a dream
It came and faded like a wreath of mist at eve
It cuts like knives, this air so chill
It drops away like water from a smooth statue
It pealed through her brain like a muffled bell
It poured upon her like a trembling flood
It racked his ears like an explosion of steam-whistles
It ran as clear as a trout-brook
It seems as motionless and still as the zenith in the skies
It set his memories humming like a hive of bees
It staggered the eye, like the sight of water running up hill
It stung like a frozen lash
It was as futile as to oppose an earthquake with argument
It was as if a door had been opened into a furnace, so the eyes blazed
It would collapse as if by enchantment
Its temples and its palaces did seem
like fabrics of enchantment piled to Heaven
J
Jealousy, fierce as the fires
K
Kindle like an angel's wings the western skies in flame
Kindly mornings when autumn and winter
seemed to go hand in hand like a happy aged couple
Kingdoms melt away like snow
L
Laboring like a giant
Languid streams that cross softly, slowly,
with a sound like smothered weeping
Laughter like a beautiful bubble from the rosebud of baby-hood
Laughter like the sudden outburst of the glad bird in the tree-top
Lazy merchantmen that crawled like flies over the blue enamel of the sea
Leapt like a hunted stag
Let his frolic fancy play, like a happy child
Let in confusion like a whirling flood
Let thy mouth murmur like the doves
Life had been arrested, as the horologist,
with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock
[horologist = one who repairs watches]
Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road
Life sweet as perfume and pure as prayer
Light as a snowflake
Lights gleamed there like stars in a still sky
Like a ball of ice it glittered in a frozen sea of sky
Like a blade sent home to its scabbard
Like a blast from a horn
Like a blast from the suddenly opened door of a furnace
Like a blossom blown before a breeze,
a white moon drifts before a shimmering sky
Like a bright window in a distant view
Like a caged lion shaking the bars of his prison
Like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep
Like a cloud of fire
Like a cold wind his words went through their flesh
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue
Like a damp-handed auctioneer
Like a deaf and dumb man wondering what it was all about
Like a dew-drop, ill-fitted to sustain unkindly shocks
Like a dipping swallow the stout ship dashed through the storm
Like a distant star glimmering steadily in the darkness
Like a dream she vanished
Like a festooned girdle encircling the waist of a bride
Like a flower her red lips parted
Like a game in which the important part is to keep from laughing
Like a glow-worm golden
Like a golden-shielded army
Like a great express train, roaring, flashing, dashing head-long
Like a great fragment of the dawn it lay
Like a great ring of pure and endless light
Like a great tune to which the planets roll
Like a high and radiant ocean
Like a high-born maiden
Like a jewel every cottage casement showed
Like a joyless eye that finds no object worth its constancy
Like a knight worn out by conflict
Like a knot of daisies lay the hamlets on the hill
Like a lily in bloom
Like a living meteor
Like a locomotive-engine with unsound lungs
Like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting
Like a mirage, vague, dimly seen at first
Like a miser who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth
[scanting = short]
Like a mist the music drifted from the silvery strings
Like a moral lighthouse in the midst of a dark and troubled sea
Like a murmur of the wind came a gentle sound of stillness
Like a noisy argument in a drawing-room
Like a pageant of the Golden Year, in rich memorial pomp the hours go by
Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished
Like a poet hidden
Like a river of molten amethyst
Like a rocket discharging a shower of golden stars
Like a rose embower'd in its own green leaves
Like a sea of upturned faces
Like a shadow never to be overtaken
Like a shadow on a fair sunlit landscape
Like a sheeted ghost
Like a ship tossed to and fro on the waves of life's sea
Like a slim bronze statue of Despair
Like a snow-flake lost in the ocean
Like a soul that wavers in the Valley of the Shadow
Like a stalled horse that breaks loose
and goes at a gallop through the plain
Like a star, his love's pure face looked down
Like a star that dwelt apart
Like a star, unhasting, unresting
Like a stone thrown at random
Like a summer cloud, youth indeed has crept away
Like a summer-dried fountain
Like a swift eagle in the morning glare
breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight
Like a thing at rest
Like a thing read in a book or remembered out of the faraway past
Like a tide of triumph through their veins,
the red, rejoicing blood began to race
Like a triumphing fire the news was borne
Like a troop of boys let loose from school, the adventurers went by
Like a vaporous amethyst
Like a vision of the morning air
Like a voice from the unknown regions
Like a wandering star I fell through the deeps of desire
Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel
Like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed
Like a whirlwind they went past
Like a withered leaf the moon is blown across the bay
Like a world of sunshine
Like a yellow silken scarf the thick fog hangs
Like an alien ghost I stole away
Like an eagle clutching his prey, his arm swooped down
Like an eagle dallying with the wind
Like an engine of dread war, he set his shoulder to the mountain-side
Like an enraged tiger
Like an enthusiast leading about with him an indifferent tourist
Like an icy wave, a swift and tragic impression swept through him
Like an unbidden guest
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun
Like an unseen star of birth
Like an unwelcome thought
Like apparitions seen and gone
Like attempting to number the waves on the snore of a limitless sea
Like bells that waste the moments with their loudness
Like blasts of trumpets blown in wars
Like bright Apollo
Like bright lamps, the fabled apples glow
Like building castles in the air
Like bursting waves from the ocean
Like cliffs which have been rent asunder
Like clouds of gnats with perfect lineaments
[lineaments = distinctive shape]
Like cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant
Like crystals of snow
Like dead lovers who died true
Like Death, who rides upon a thought,
and makes his way through temple, tower, and palace
Like dew upon a sleeping flower
Like dining with a ghost
Like drawing nectar in a sieve
Like earth's decaying leaves
Like echoes from a hidden lyre
Like echoes from an antenatal dream
Like fixed eyes, whence the dear light of sense and thought has fled
Like footsteps upon wool
Like fragrance from dead flowers
Like ghosts, from an enchanter fleeing
Like ghosts the sentries come and go
Like golden boats on a sunny sea
Like great black birds, the demons haunt the woods
Like green waves on the sea
Like having to taste a hundred exquisite dishes in a single meal
Like Heaven's free breath, which he who grasps can hold not
Like helpless birds in the warm nest
Like iridescent bubbles floating on a foul stream
Like kindred drops mingled into one
Like laying a burden on the back of a moth
Like lead his feet were
Like leaves in wintry weather
Like leviathans afloat
Like lighting a candle to the sun
Like making a mountain out of a mole-hill
Like mariners pulling the life-boat
Like mice that steal in and out as if they feared the light
Like mountain over mountain huddled
Like mountain streams we meet and part
Like music on the water
Like notes which die when born, but still haunt the echoes of the hill
Like oceans of liquid silver
Like one pale star against the dusk,
a single diamond on her brow gleamed with imprisoned fire
Like one who halts with tired wings
Like one who talks of what he loves in dream
Like organ music came the deep reply
Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream
Like phantoms gathered by the sick imagination
Like planets in the sky
Like pouring oil on troubled waters
Like roses that in deserts bloom and die
Like rowing upstream against a strong downward current
Like scents from a twilight garden
Like separated souls
Like serpents struggling in a vulture's grasp
Like sheep from out the fold of the sky, stars leapt
Like ships that have gone down at sea
Like shy elves hiding from the traveler's eye
Like skeletons, the sycamores uplift their wasted hands
Like some grave night thought threading a dream
Like some new-gathered snowy hyacinth,
so white and cold and delicate it was
Like some poor nigh-related guest, that may not rudely be dismist
Like some suppressed and hideous thought which flits athwart our musings,
but can find no rest within a pure and gentle mind
Like some unshriven churchyard thing, the friar crawled
Like something fashioned in a dream
Like sounds of wind and flood
Like splendor-winged moths about a taper
Like stepping out on summer evenings from the glaring ball-room
upon the cool and still piazza
Like straws in a gust of wind
Like summer's beam and summer's stream
Like sunlight, in and out the leaves, the robins went
Like sweet thoughts in a dream
Like the awful shadow of some unseen power
Like the bellowing of bulls
Like the boar encircled by hunters and hounds
Like the bubbles on a river sparkling, bursting, borne away
Like the cold breath of the grave
Like the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar
Like the cry of an itinerant vendor in a quiet and picturesque town
Like the dance of some gay sunbeam
Like the dawn of the morn
Like the detestable and spidery araucaria
[araucaria = evergreen trees of South America and Australia]
Like the dew on the mountain
Like the dim scent in violets
Like the drifting foam of a restless sea
when the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze
Like the embodiment of a perfect rose, complete in form and fragrance
Like the faint cry of unassisted woe
Like the faint exquisite music of a dream
Like the fair flower dishevel'd in the wind
Like the fair sun, when in his fresh array he cheers the morn,
and all the earth revealeth
Like the falling thud of the blade of a murderous ax
Like the fierce fiend of a distempered dream
Like the fitting of an old glove to a hand
Like the foam on the river
Like the great thunder sounding
Like the jangling of all the strings of some musical instrument
Like the jewels that gleam in baby eyes
Like the kiss of maiden love the breeze is sweet and bland
Like the long wandering love, the weary heart may faint for rest
Like the moon in water seen by night
Like the music in the patter of small feet
Like the prodigal whom wealth softens into imbecility
Like the quivering image of a landscape in a flowing stream
Like the rainbow, thou didst fade
Like the rustling of grain moved by the west-wind
Like the sap that turns to nectar, in the velvet of the peach
Like the sea whose waves are set in motion by the winds
Like the sea-worm, that perforates the shell of the mussel,
which straightway closes the wound with a pearl
Like the setting of a tropical sun
Like the shadow of a great hill that reaches far out over the plain
Like the shadows of the stars in the upheaved sea
Like the shudder of a doomed soul
Like the silver gleam when the poplar trees
rustle their pale leaves listlessly
Like the soft light of an autumnal day
Like the Spring-time, fresh and green
Like the stern-lights of a ship at sea,
illuminating only the path which has been passed over
Like the sudden impulse of a madman
Like the swell of Summer's ocean
Like the tattered effigy in a cornfield
Like the vase in which roses have once been distill'd
Like the visits of angels, short and far between
Like the whole sky when to the east the morning doth return
Like thistles of the wilderness, fit neither for food nor fuel
Like those great rivers, whose course everyone beholds,
but their springs have been seen by but few
Like thoughts whose very sweetness
yielded proof that they were born for immortality
Like to diamonds her white teeth shone between the parted lips
Like torrents from a mountain source, we rushed into each other's arms
Like troops of ghosts on the dry wind past
Like two doves with silvery wings, let our souls fly
Like two flaming stars were his eyes
Like vaporous shapes half seen
Like village curs that bark when their fellows do
Like wasted hours of youth
Like winds that bear sweet music,
when they breathe through some dim latticed chamber
Like wine-stain to a flask the old distrust still clings
Like winged stars the fire-flies flash and glance
Like young lovers whom youth and love make dear
Lingering like an unloved guest
Lithe as a panther
Little white hands like pearls
Lofty as a queen
Loneliness struck him like a blow
Looked back with faithful eyes like a great mastiff to his master's face
Looking as sulky as the weather itself
Looking like a snarling beast baulked of its prey
[baulked = checked, thwarted]
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed
Lost like the lightning in the sullen clod
Love as clean as starlight
Love brilliant as the morning
Love had like the canker-worm consumed her early prime
Love is a changing lord as the light on a turning sword
Love like a child around the world doth run
Love like a miser in the dark his joys would hide
Love shakes like a windy reed your heart
Love smiled like an unclouded sun
Love that sings and has wings as a bird
Lovely as starry water
Lovely the land unknown and like a river flowing
M
March on my soul nor like the laggard stay
Me on whose heart as a worm she trod
Meaningless as the syllables of an unknown tongue
Men moved hither and thither like insects in their crevices
Mentality as hard as bronze
Mentally round-shouldered and decrepit
Merge imperceptibly into one another like the hues of the prism
Meteors that dart like screaming birds
Milk-white pavements, clear and richly pale, like alabaster
More variegated than the skin of a serpent
Motion like the spirit of that wind whose soft step deepens slumber
Motionless as a plumb line
Mountains like frozen wrinkles on a sea
Moving in the same dull round, like blind horses in a mill
Mute as an iceberg
My age is as a lusty Winter
My body broken as a turning wheel
My breath to Heaven like vapor goes
My head was like a great bronze bell with one thought for the clapper
My heart is as some famine-murdered land
My heart is like a full sponge and must weep a little
My heart like a bird doth hover
My heart will be as wind fainting in hot grass
My life floweth away like a river
My life was white as driven snow
My love for thee is like the sovereign moon that rules the sea
My love's like the steadfast sun
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer [chanticleer = rooster]
My mind swayed idly like a water-lily in a lake
My muscles are as steel
My skin is as sallow as gold
My soul was as a lampless sea
My spirit seemed to beat the void, like the bird from out the ark
My thoughts came yapping and growling round me like a pack of curs
My thoughts ran leaping through the green ways of my mind
like fawns at play
N
Night falls like fire
No longer shall slander's venomed spite crawl
like a snake across his perfect name
Now every nerve in my body seemed like a strained harp-string
ready to snap at a touch
Now like a wild nymph she veils her shadowy form
Now like a wild rose in the fields of heaven
slipt forth the slender figure of the Dawn
Now memory and emotion surged in my soul like a tempest
Now thou seemest like a bankrupt beau, stripped of his gaudy hues
O
Obscured with wrath as is the sun with cloud
Odorous as all Arabia
Often enough life tosses like a fretful stream among rocky boulders
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud
Old as the evening star
Old happy hours that have long folded their wings
Once again, like madness, the black shapes of doubt swing through his brain
One bleared star, faint glimmering like a bee
One bright drop is like the gem that decks a monarch's crown
One by one flitting like a mournful bird
One deep roar as of a cloven world
One winged cloud above like a spread dragon overhangs the west
Oppressed by the indefiniteness which hung in her mind,
like a thick summer haze
Or shedding radiance like the smiles of God
Our enemies were broken like a dam of river reeds
Our hearts bowed down like violets after rain
Our sail like a dew-lit blossom shone
Overhead the intense blue of the noonday sky burst like a jewel in the sun
P
Pale and grave as a sculptured nun
Pale as a drifting blossom
Passed like a phantom into the shadows
Passive and tractable as a child
Peaceful as a village cricket-green on Sunday
Peevish and impatient, like some ill-trained man who is sick
Perished utterly, like a blown-out flame
Philosophy evolved itself, like a vast spider's loom
Pillowed upon its alabaster arms
like to a child o'erwearied with sweet toil
Polished as the bosom of a star
Poured his heart out like the rending sea in passionate wave on wave
Pouting like the snowy buds o' roses in July
Presently she hovered like a fluttering leaf or flake of snow
Pride and self-disgust served her
like first-aid surgeons on the battlefield
Proud as the proudest of church dignitaries
Pure as a wild-flower
Pure as the azure above them
Pure as the naked heavens
Pure as the snowy leaves that fold over the flower's heart
Purple, crimson, and scarlet, like the curtains of God's tabernacle
Put on gravity like a robe
Q
Quaking and quivering like a short-haired puppy after a ducking
Questions and answers sounding like a continuous popping of corks
Quiet as a nun's face
Quietly as a cloud he stole
Quietude which seemed to him beautiful as clear depths of water
Quivering like an eager race-horse to start
R
Rage, rage ye tears, that never more should creep
like hounds about God's footstool
Ran like a young fawn
Rattle in the ear like a flourish of trumpets
Rays springing from the east like golden arrows
Red as the print of a kiss might be
Redolent with the homely scent of old-fashioned herbs and flowers
Reflected each in the other like stars in a lake
Refreshed like dusty grass after a shower
Refreshing as descending rains to sunburnt climes
Remote as the hidden star
Restless as a blue-bottle fly on a warm summer's day
Revealed his doings like those of bees in a glass hive
Rich as the dawn
Ride like the wind through the night
Rivers that like silver threads
ran through the green and gold of pasture lands
Roared like mountain torrents
Rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel
Round my chair the children run like little things of dancing gold
Ruddy as sunrise
Ruddy his face as the morning light
Ruffling out his cravat with a crackle of starch,
like a turkey when it spreads its feathers
Running to and fro like frightened sheep
Rushing and hurrying about like a June-bug
S
Sanctuaries where the passions may, like wild falcons,
cover their faces with their wings
Sayings that stir the blood like the sound of a trumpet
Scattered love as stars do light
Sea-gulls flying like flakes of the sea
Sentences level and straight like a hurled lance
Shadowy faces, known in dreams, pass as petals upon a stream
Shake like an aspen leaf
Shaken off like a nightmare
Shapeless as a sack of wool
Shattered like so much glass
She brightened like a child whose broken toy is glued together
She could summon tears as one summons servants
She danced like a flower in the wind
She disclaimed the weariness that
dragged upon her spirits like leaden weights
She exuded a faint and intoxicating perfume of womanliness,
like a crushed herb
She felt like an unrepentant criminal
She fled like a spirit from the room
She flounders like a huge conger-eel in an ocean of dingy morality
She gave him a surprised look,
like a child catching an older person in a foolish statement
She gave off antipathies as a liquid gives off vapor
She has great eyes like the doe
She heard him like one in a dream
She let the soft waves of her deep hair fall like flowers from Paradise
She looked like a tall golden candle
She looked like the picture of a young rapt saint, lost in heavenly musing
She moved like mirth incarnate
She nestles like a dove
She played with a hundred possibilities
fitfully and discursively as a musician runs his fingers over a key-board
She played with grave cabinets as a cat plays with a mouse
She saw this planet like a star hung in the glistening depths of even
She seemed as happy as a wave that dances on the sea
She shall be sportive as the fawn
She stood silent a moment, dropping before him like a broken branch
She that passed had lips like pinks
She walked like a galley-slave
She walks in beauty like the night
She was as brilliant, and as hard too, as electric light
She was silent, standing before him like a little statuesque figure
Shining like the dewy star of dawn
Shivering pine-trees, like phantoms
Showy as damask-rose and shy as musk
Shrill as the loon's call
Shrivel like paper thrust into a flame
Shy as the squirrel
Sights seen as a traveling swallow might see them on the wing
Silence deep as death
Silence now is brooding
like a gentle spirit o'er the still and pulseless world
Silence that seemed heavy and dark; like a passing cloud
Sinks clamorous like mill-waters at wild play
Sits like the maniac on his fancied throne
Skies as clear as babies' eyes
Sleek and thick and yellow as gold
Slender and thin as a slender wire
Slowly as a tortoise
Slowly as the finger of a clock, her shadow came
Slowly moved off and disappeared
like shapes breathed on a mirror and melting away
Slowly, unnoted, like the creeping rust
that spreads insidious, had estrangement come
Small as a grain of mustard seed
Smooth as a pond
Smooth as the pillar flashing in the sun
Snug as a bug in a rug
Soaring as swift as smoke from a volcano springs
So elusive that the memory of it afterwards
was wont to come and go like a flash of light
So my spirit beat itself like a caged bird against its prison bars in vain
Soft as a zephyr
Soft as sleep the snow fell
Soft as Spring
Soft as the down of the turtle dove
Soft as the landscape of a dream
Soft as the south-wind
Soft in their color as gray pearls
Soft vibrations of verbal melody, like the sound of a golden bell
rung far down under the humming waters
Some gleams of feeling pure and warm as sunshine on a sky of storm
Some like veiled ghosts hurrying past
as though driven to their land of shadows by shuddering fear
Some minds are like an open fire--how direct and instant
our communication with them
Something divine seemed to cling around her like some subtle vapor
Something resistant and inert, like the obstinate rolling over
of a heavy sleeper after he has been called to get up
Something sharp and brilliant, like the glitter of a sword
or a forked flash of lightning
Sorrowful eyes like those of wearied kine spent from the plowing
[kine = cows]
Spread like wildfire
Squirrel-in-the-cage kind of movement
Stamping like a plowman to shuffle off the snow
Stared about like calves in a pen
Steadfast as the soul of truth
Steals lingering like a river smooth
Still as death
Stood like a wave-beaten rock
Straight as a ray of light
Straight as an arrow
Streamed like a meteor through the troubled air
Streamed o'er his memory like a forest flame
Streaming tears, like pearl drops from a flint
Striking with the force of an engine of destruction
Strong as a bison
Style comes, if at all, like the bloom upon fruit,
or the glow of health upon the cheek
Subtle as jealousy
Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose, flushing his brow
Sudden sprays of rain, like volleys of sharp arrows,
rattled gustily against the windows
Suddenly, like death, the truth flashed on them
Sunbeams flashing on the face of things
like sudden smilings of divine delight
Sunday mornings which seem to put on, like a Sabbath garment,
an atmosphere of divine quietude
Supple and sweet as a rose in bloom
Sway like blown moths against the rosewhite flame
Sweet as a summer night without a breath
Sweet as music she spoke
Sweet as the rain at noon
Sweet as the smile of a fairy
Swift as a swallow heading south
Swift as lightning
Swift as the panther in triumph
Swifter than the twinkling of an eye
T
Talking and thinking became to him like the open page of a monthly magazine
Tall lance-like reeds wave sadly o'er his head
That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along
The anemone that weeps at day-break, like a silly girl before her lover
The army blazed and glowed in the golden sunlight
like a mosaic of a hundred thousand jewels
The army like a witch's caldron seethed
The beating of her heart was like a drum
The beauty of her quiet life was like a rose in blowing
The billows burst like cannon down the coast
The birds swam the flood of air like tiny ships
The boat cuts its swift way through little waves like molten gold and opal
The boom of the surf grew ever less sonorous,
like the thunder of a retreating storm
The breast-plate of righteousness
The breathless hours like phantoms stole away
The breeze is as a pleasant tune
The calm white brow as calm as earliest morn
The camp fire reddens like angry skies
The chambers of the house were haunted by an incessant echoing,
like some dripping cavern
The church swarmed like a hive
The city is all in a turmoil; it boils like a pot of lentils
The clouds that move like spirits o'er the welkin clear [welkin = sky]
The clustered apples burnt like flame
The colored bulbs swung noon-like from tree and shrub
The crimson close of day
The curl'd moon was like a little feather
The curling wreaths like turbans seem
The dark hours are swept away like crumbling ashes
The dark mass of her hair shook round her like a sea
The dawn is rising from the sea, like a white lady from her bed
The dawn had whitened in the mist like a dead face
The dawn with silver-sandaled feet crept like a frightened girl.
The day stunned me like light upon some wizard way
The day was sweeter than honey and the honey-comb
The day have trampled me like armed men
The dead past flew away over the fens like a flight of wild swans
The deep like one black maelstrom round her whirls
The deepening east like a scarlet poppy burnt
The desolate rocky hills rolled like a solid wave along the horizon
The dome of heaven is like one drop of dew
The dreams of poets come like music heard at evening
from the depth of some enchanted forest
The eagerness faded from his eyes,
leaving them cold as a winter sky after sunset
The earth was like a frying-pan, or some such hissing matter
The eternal sea, which like a childless mother,
still must croon her ancient sorrows to the cold white moon
The evening sky was as green as jade
The excitement had spread through the whole house,
like a piquant and agreeable odor
The excitement of the thought
buoyed his high-strung temperament like a tonic
The feathery meadows like a lilac sea
The firm body like a slope of snow
The first whiff of reality dissipated them like smoke
The floor, newly waxed, gleamed in the candle-light like beaten moonbeams
The fragrant clouds of hair, they flowed round him like a snare
The gathering glory of life shone like the dawn
The gesture was all strength and will,
like the stretching of a sea-bird's wings
The girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his rustling fancies
The glimmer of tall flowers standing
like pensive moon-worshipers in an ecstasy of prayerless bloom
The guides sniffed, like chamois, the air
[chamois = extremely agile goat antelope]
The heavens are like a scroll unfurled
The hills across the valley were purple as thunder-clouds
The hoofs of the horses rang like the dumb cadence of an old saga
The hours crawled by like years
The hum of the camp sounds like the sea
The hurrying crowds of men gather like clouds
The ideas succeeded each other like a dynasty of kings
The impalpable presence of the new century
rose like a vast empty house through which
no human feet had walked
The inexorable facts closed in on him
like prison-warders hand-cuffing a convict
The lake glimmered as still as a mirror
The land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell
The land was like a dream
The level boughs, like bars of iron across the setting sun
The light of London flaring like a dreary dawn
The lights blazed up like day
The lilies were drooping, white, and wan,
like the head and skin of a dying man
The mellowing hand of time
The melody rose tenderly and lingeringly
like a haunting perfume of pressed flowers
The Milky Way lay like diamond-dust upon the robe of some great king
The monk's face whitened like sea-foam
The moon drowsed between the trees like a great yellow moth
The moon on the tower slept soft as snow
The moonbeams rest like a pale spotless shroud
The moonlight lay like snow
The moonlight, like a fairy mist, upon the mesa spreads
The mortal coldness of the soul, like death itself comes down
The mountain shadows mingling, lay like pools above the earth
The mountains loomed up dimly, like phantoms through the mist
The music almost died away, then it burst like a pent-up flood
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
Theories sprouted in his mind like mushrooms
There is an air about you like the air that folds a star
There, like a bird, it sits and sings
There seemed to brood in the air a quiet benevolence
of a Father watching His myriad children at play
There she soars like a seraph
There she stood straight as a lily on its stem
There slowly rose to sight, a country like a dragon fast asleep
There streamed into the air the sweet smell of crushed grass, as though
many fields had been pressed between giant's fingers and so had been left
These eyes like stars have led me
These final words snapped like a whip-lash
These thoughts pierced me like thorns
They are as cruel as creeping tigers
They are as white foam on the swept sands
They are as white swans in the dusk, thy white hands
They are painted sharp as death
They broke into pieces and fell on the ground,
like a silvery, shimmering shower of hail
They dropped like panthers
They fly like spray
They had hands like claws
They had slipped away like visions
They have as many principles as a fish has bones
They have faces like flowers
They hurried down like plovers that have heard the call
[plovers = wading birds]
They look like rose-buds filled with snow
They seem like swarming flies, the crowd of little men
They seemed like floating flowers
They shine as sweet as simple doves
They stand like solitary mountain forms
on some hard, perfectly transparent day
They vanished like the shapes that float upon a summer's dream
Thick as wind-blown leaves innumerable
Thickly the flakes drive past, each like a childish ghost
Thine eyes like two twin stars shining
This life is like a bubble blown up in the air
This love that dwells like moonlight in your face
This thought is as death
This tower rose in the sunset like a prayer
Those ancestral themes past which so many generations have slept
like sea-going winds over pastures
Those death-like eyes, unconscious of the sun
Those eyelids folded like a white rose-leaf
Those eyes like bridal beacons shine
Thou art to me but as a wave of the wild sea
Thou as heaven art fair and young
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea
Thou must wither like a rose
Thou shalt be as free as mountain winds
Thou wouldst weep tears bitter as blood
Though bright as silver the meridian beams shine
Though thou be black as night
Thoughts vague as the fitful breeze
Three-cornered notes fly about like butterflies
Through the forest, like a fairy dream through some dark mind,
the ferns in branching beauty stream
Through the moonlit trees, like ghosts of sounds haunting the moonlight,
stole the faint tinkle of a guitar
Through the riot of his senses, like a silver blaze, ran the legend
Thy beauty like a beast it bites
Thy brown benignant eyes have sudden gleams of gladness and surprise,
like woodland brooks that cross a sunlit spot
Thy carven columns must have grown by magic, like a dream in stone
Thy favors are but like the wind that kisses everything it meets
Thy heart is light as a leaf of a tree
Thy name burns like a gray and flickering candle flame
Thy name will be as honey on men's lips
Till death like sleep might steal on me
Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven
Time drops in decay, like a candle burnt out
Time like a pulse shakes fierce
To drag life on, which
like a heavy chain lengthens behind with many a link of pain
To forsake as the trees drop their leaves in autumn
Toys with smooth trifles like a child at play
Transitory as clouds without substance
Transparent like a shining sun
Tree and shrub altered their values
and became transmuted to silver sentinels
Trees that spread their forked boughs like a stag's antlers
Trembling like an aspen-leaf
Truths which forever shine as fixed stars
Turning easily and securely as on a perfect axle
U
Unbends like a loosened bow
Unbreakable as iron
Unconscious as an oak-tree of its growth
Under the willow-tree glimmered her face
like a foam-flake drifting over the sea
Unheralded, like some tornado
loosed out of the brooding hills, it came to pass
Unknown, like a seed in fallow ground, was the germ of a plan
Unmoving as a tombstone
Untameable as flies
Unutterable things pressing on my soul
like a pent-up storm craving for outlet
Upcast like foam of the effacing tide
Uplifting the soul as on dovelike wings
Uplifting their stony peaks around us
like the walls and turrets of a gigantic fortress
Urgent as the seas
Uttering wild cries like a creature in pain
V
Vague as a dream
Vague thoughts that stream shapelessly through her mind
like long sad vapors through the twilight sky
Vanish into thin air, like ghosts at the cockcrow
Vanished like snow when comes a thaw
Vanished like vapor before the sun
Vibrations set quivering like harp strings struck by the hand of a master
Vociferous praise following like a noisy wave
W
Walking somewhat unsteadily like a blind man feeling his way
Waves glittered and danced on all sides like millions of diamonds
We left her and retraced our steps like faithless hounds
Weak and frail like the vapor of a vale
Wearing their wounds like stars
Weary wind, who wanderest like the world's rejected guest
When a draft might puff them out like a guttering candle
[guttering = To melt through the side of the hollow in a candle
formed by a burning wick; to burn low and unsteadily; flicker]
When arm in arm they both came swiftly running,
like a pair of turtle-doves that could not live asunder day or night
When cards, invitations, and three-corn'd notes
fly about like white butterflies
When she died, her breath whistled like the wind in a keyhole
When the fever pierced me like a knife
Where a lamp of deathless beauty shines like a beacon
Where heroes die as leaves fall
Where the intricate wheels of trade are grinding on, like a mill
Where the source of the waters is fine as a thread
Whilst the lagging hours of the day went by
like windless clouds o'er a tender sky
Whistled sharply in the air like a handful of vipers
White as a ghost from darkness
White as chalk
White as dove or lily, or spirit of the light
White as the driven snow
White as the moon's white flame
White as the sea-bird's wing
White clouds like daisies
White hands she moves like swimming swans
White hands through her hair,
like white doves going into the shadow of a wood
White like flame
White sails of sloops like specters
Whose bodies are as strong as alabaster
Whose hair was as gold raiment on a king
Whose laugh moves like a bat through silent haunted woods
Whose little eyes glow like the sparks of fire
Whose music like a robe of living light reclothed each new-born age
Windy speech which hits all around the mark like a drunken carpenter
Winged like an arrow to its mark
With a sting like a scorpion
With all the complacency of a homeless cat
With an angry broken roar, like billows on an unseen shore, their fury burst
With hate darkling as the swift winter hail
With music sweet as love
With sounds like breakers
With strength like steel
With the whisper of leaves in one's ear
With words like honey melting from the comb
Wits as sharp as gimlets [gimlet = small hand tool for boring holes]
Women with tongues like polar needles
Words as fresh as spring verdure
[verdure = lush greenness of flourishing vegetation]
Words as soft as rain
Words like the gossamer film of the summer
Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd
Words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs overhead
Wordsworth, thy music like a river rolls
Worthless like the conjurer's gold
Wrangle over details like a grasping pawnbroker
Wrinkled and scored like a dried apple
Writhing with an intensity that burnt like a steady flame
Y
Yielding like melted snow
Yonder flimsy crescent, bent like an archer's bow above the snowy summit
You are as gloomy to-night as an undertaker out of employment
You are as hard as stone
You gave me such chill embraces
as the snow-covered heights receive from clouds
Your blood is red like wine
Your charms lay like metals in a mine
Your eyes are like fantastic moons that shiver in some stagnant lake
Your eyes as blue as violets
Your eyes they were green and gray like an April day
Your frail fancies are swallowed up,
like chance flowers flung upon the river's current
Your hair was golden as tints of sunrise
Your heart is as dry as a reed
Your locks are like the raven
Your love shall fall about me like sweet rain
Your step's like the rain to summer vexed farmer
Your thoughts are buzzing like a swarm of bees
Your tongue is like a scarlet snake
Your voice had a quaver in it just like the linnet [linnet = small finch]
Youth like a summer morn
SECTION IX
CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES
A
A most extraordinary idea!
A thousand hopes for your success
Accept my best wishes
All that is conjecture
Allow me to congratulate you
An unfortunate comparison, don't you think?
And even if it were so?
And how am I to thank you?
And in the end, what are you going to make of it?
And yet the explanation does not wholly satisfy me
Apparently I was wrong
Are we wandering from the point?
Are you a trifle--bored?
Are you fully reconciled?
Are you not complicating the question?
Are you prepared to go to that length?
Are you still obdurate?
[obdurate = Hardened in wrongdoing; stubbornly impenitent]
As it happens, your conjecture is right
Assuredly I do
At first blush it may seem fantastic
B
Banish such thoughts
But are you not taking a slightly one-sided point of view?
But consider for a moment
But I look at the practical side
But I wander from my point
But now I'll confide something to you
But perhaps I'm hardly fair when I say that
But seriously speaking, what is the use of it?
But surely that is inconsistent
But that's a tremendous hazard
But the thing is simply impossible
But there's one thing you haven't said
But, wait, you haven't heard the end
But what do you yourself think about it?
But who could foresee what was going to happen?
But you are open to persuasion?
But you do not know for certain
But you must tell me more
By a curious chance, I know it very well
By no means desirable, I think
C
Can I persuade you?
Can you imagine anything so horrible?
Certain circumstances make it undesirable
Certainly not, if it displeases you
Certainly, with the greatest pleasure
Come, where's your sense of humor?
Consult me when you want me--at any time
D
Decidedly so
Dine with me to-morrow night?--if you are free?
Do I presume too much?
Do I seem very ungenerous?
Do not misunderstand me
Do not the circumstances justify it?
Don't be so dismal, please
Don't delude yourself
Don't let me encroach on your good nature
Don't think I am unappreciative of your kindness
Do you attach any particular meaning to that?
Do you know, I envy you that
Do you know what his chief interests are now?
Do you mind my making a suggestion?
Do you press me to tell?
Do you really regard him as a serious antagonist?
Do you think there is anything ominous in it?
Does it please you so tremendously?
Does it seem incredible?
E
Either way is perplexing
Eminently proper, I think
Everyone looks at it differently
Excuse my bluntness
F
Fanciful, I should say
For the simplest of reasons
Forgive me if I seem disobliging
Fortunate, to say the least
Frankly, I don't see why it should
Frugal to a degree
Fulsome praise, I call it
G
Give me your sympathy and counsel
Glorious to contemplate
Good! that is at least something
Gratifying, I am sure
H
Happily there are exceptions to every rule
Has it really come to that?
Have I incurred your displeasure?
Have you any rooted objection to it?
Have you anything definite in your mind?
Have you reflected what the consequences might be to yourself?
He does me too much honor
He feels it acutely
He has a queer conception of the proprieties
He is a poor dissembler [dissemble = conceal behind a false appearance]
He is anything but obtuse
He is so ludicrously wrong
He is the most guileless of men
He was so extremely susceptible
He writes uncommonly clever letters
Heaven forbid that I should wound your sensibility
His sense of humor is unquenchable
How amiable you are to say so
How can I tell you how much I have enjoyed it all?
How can I thank you?
How can you be so unjust?
How delightful to meet you
How does the idea appeal to you?
How droll you are!
How extraordinary!
How intensely interesting!
How perfectly delightful!
How utterly abominable
How very agreeable this is!
How very interesting
How very surprising
How well you do it!
However, I should like to hear your views
Human nature interests me very much indeed
I
I admire your foresight
I admit it most gratefully
I agree--at least, I suppose I do
I agree that something ought to be done
I always welcome criticism so long as it is sincere
I am absolutely bewildered
I am afraid I am not familiar enough with the subject
I am afraid I cannot suggest an alternative
I am afraid I've allowed you to tire yourself
I am afraid I must confess my ignorance
I am afraid you will call me a sentimentalist
I am always glad to do anything to please you
I am anxious to discharge the very onerous debt I owe you
I am appealing to your sense of humor
I am at your service
I am bound to secrecy
I am compelled to, unluckily
I am curious to learn what his motive was
I am deeply flattered and grateful
I am delighted to hear you say so
I am dumb with admiration
I am entirely at your disposal
I am extremely glad you approve of it
I am far from believing the maxim
I am fortunate in being able to do you a service
I am glad to be able to think that
I am glad to have had this talk with you
I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty
I am glad you can see it in that way
I am glad you feel so deeply about it
I am giving you well-deserved praise
I am going to make a confession
I am grateful for your good opinion
I am honestly indignant
I am, I confess, a little discouraged
I am in a chastened mood
I am inclined to agree with you
I am incredulous
I am indebted to you for the suggestion
I am listening--I was about to propose
I am lost in admiration
I am luckily disengaged to-day
I am more grieved than I can tell you
I am naturally overjoyed
I am not a person of prejudices
I am not an alarmist
I am not as unreasonable as you suppose
I am not at all in the secret of his ambitions
I am not capable of unraveling it
I am not going into sordid details
I am not going to let you evade the question
I am not going to pay you any idle compliments
I am not impervious to the obligations involved
I am not in sympathy with it
I am not in the least surprised
I am not inquisitive
I am not prepared to say
I am not sure that I can manage it
I am not vindictive
I am overjoyed to hear you say so
I am perfectly aware of what I am saying
I am persuaded by your candor
I am quite convinced of that
I am quite discomfited
I am quite interested to see what you will do
I am quite ready to be convinced
I am rather of the opinion that I was mistaken
I am ready to make great allowances
I am really afraid I don't know
I am really gregarious
I am sensible of the flattery
I am seriously annoyed with myself about it
I am so glad you think that
I am so sorry--so very sorry
I am sorry to disillusionize you
I am sorry to interrupt this interesting discussion
I am sorry to say it is impossible
I am speaking plainly
I am still a little of an idealist
I am suppressing many of the details
I am sure it sounds very strange to you
I am sure you could pay me no higher compliment
I am sure you will hear me out
I am surprised, I confess
I am sustained by the prospect of a good dinner
I am vastly obliged to you
I am vastly your debtor for the information
I am very far from being a fanatic
I am very glad of this opportunity
I am very grateful--very much flattered
I am wholly in agreement with you
I am willing to accept all the consequences
I am wonderfully well
I am wondering if I may dare ask you a very personal question?
I am your creditor unawares
I anticipate your argument
I appreciate your motives
I assure you it is most painful to me
I assure you my knowledge of it is limited
I bear no malice about that
I beg your indulgence
I beg your pardon, but you take it too seriously
I brazenly confess it
I can easily understand your astonishment
I can explain the apparent contradiction
I can find no satisfaction in it
I can hardly agree with you there
I can never be sufficiently grateful
I can only tell you the bare facts
I can scarcely accept the offer
I can scarcely boast that honor
I can scarcely imagine anything more disagreeable
I can sympathize with you
I cannot altogether acquit myself of interested motives
I cannot explain it even to myself
I cannot find much real satisfaction in it
I cannot forbear to press my advantage
I cannot imagine what you mean
I cannot precisely determine
I can't pretend to make a jest of what I'm going to say
I cannot say definitely at the moment
I cannot say that in fact it is always so
I cannot see how you draw that conclusion
I cannot thank you enough for all your consideration
I compliment you on your good sense
I confess, I find it difficult
I could ask for nothing better
I could never forgive myself for that
I dare say your intuition is quite right
I decline to commit myself beforehand
I detest exaggeration
I didn't mean that--exactly
I do not comprehend your meaning
I don't deny that it is interesting
I don't doubt it for a moment
I do not doubt the sincerity of your arguments
I do not exactly understand you
I do not feel sure that I entirely share your views
I don't feel that it is my business
I do not find it an unpleasant subject
I don't insist on your believing me
I don't justify my presumption
I don't know quite why you should say that
I don't know that I can do that
I don't know when I have heard anything so lamentable
I don't know why you should be displeased
I don't make myself clear, I see
I don't pretend to explain
I don't see anything particularly wonderful in it
I don't underrate his kindness
I don't want to disguise that from you
I don't want to exaggerate
I don't want to seem critical
I doubt the truth of that saying
I endorse it, every word
I entirely approve of your plan
I fancy it's just that
I fear I cannot help you
I fear that's too technical for me
I feel a certain apprehension
I feel an unwonted sense of gaiety [unwonted = unusual]
I feel it my duty to be frank with you
I feel myself scarcely competent to judge
I feel very grateful to you for your kind offer
I find it absorbing
I find it rather monotonous
I find this agreeable mental exhilaration
I frankly confess that
I generally trust my first impressions
I give my word gladly
I give you my most sacred word of honor
I had better begin at the beginning
I had no intention of being offensive
I hadn't thought of it in that light
I hardly think that could be so
I have a hundred reasons for thinking so
I have a peculiar affection for it
I have an immense faith in him
I have been constrained by circumstances
I have been decidedly impressed
I have been longing to see more of you
I have been puzzling over a dilemma
I have every reason to think so
I have given you the best proof of it
I have gone back to my first impressions
I have known striking instances of the kind
I have never heard it put so well
I have no delusions on that score
I have not succeeded in convincing myself of that
I have not the influence you think
I have not the least doubt of it
I haven't the remotest idea
I have often a difficulty in deciding
I have often marveled at your courage
I have quite changed my opinion about that
I have something of great importance to say to you
I have sometimes vaguely felt it
I have the strongest possible prejudice against it
I heartily congratulate you
I hope it will not seem unreasonable to you
I hope we may meet again
I hope you will forgive an intruder
I hope you will not think me irreverent
I hope you will pardon my seeming carelessness
I indulge the modest hope
I know it is very presumptuous
I know my request will appear singular
I like it immensely
I like your frankness
I make no reflection whatever
I mean it literally
I might question all that
I mistrust these wild impulses
I most certainly agree with you
I most humbly ask pardon
I must add my congratulations on your taste
I must apologize for intruding upon you
I must ask you one more question, if I may
I must confess I have never thought of that
I must refrain from any comment
I must respectfully decline to tell you
I must take this opportunity to tell you
I need not remind you that you have a grave responsibility
I never heard anything so absurd
I offer my humblest apologies
I owe the idea wholly to you
I partly agree with you
I personally owe you a great debt of thankfulness
I place myself entirely at your service
I place the most implicit reliance on your good sense
I prefer to reserve my judgment
I purposely evaded the question
I quite appreciate the very clever way you put it
I quite see what the advantages are
I really am curious to know how you guessed that
I realize how painful it must be to you
I recollect it clearly
I rely on your good sense
I remember the occasion perfectly
I resent that kind of thing
I respect you for that
I respect your critical faculty
I say it in all modesty
I see disapproval in your face
I see it from a different angle
I see you are an enthusiast
I see your point of view
I seem to have heard that sentiment before
I shall at once proceed to forget it
I shall await your pleasure
I shall be glad if you will join me
I shall be interested to watch it develop
I shall be most proud and pleased
I shall certainly take you at your word
I shall feel highly honored
I shall make a point of thinking so
I shall never forget your kindness
I shall respect your confidence
I should appreciate your confidence greatly
I should be very ungrateful were I not satisfied with it
I should feel unhappy if I did otherwise
I should like your opinion of it
I should not dream of asking you to do so
I should think it very unlikely
I simply cannot endure it
I spoke only in jest
I stand corrected
I suppose I ought to feel flattered
I surmised as much
I sympathize deeply with you
I take that for granted
I think extremely well of it
I think he has very noble ideals
I think I can answer that for you
I think I know what you are going to say
I think it has its charm
I think it is superb!
I think it quite admirable
I think its tone is remarkably temperate
I think that is rather a brilliant idea
I think what you say is reasonable
I think you are quibbling
I think you are rather severe in your opinions
I think you have great appreciation of values
I think you have summed it up perfectly
I think your candor is charming
I thoroughly agree with you
I thought it most amusing
I thought you were seriously indisposed
I trust you will not consider it an impertinence
I understand exactly how you feel about it
I understand your delicacy of feeling
I venture to propose another plan
I very rarely allow myself that pleasure
I want to have a frank understanding with you
I was at a loss to understand the reason for it
I was hoping that I could persuade you
I was on the point of asking you
I was speaking generally
I watched you with admiration
I will answer you frankly
I will listen to no protestations
I will take it only under compulsion
I will tell you what puzzles me
I will think of it, since you wish it
I will, with great pleasure
I wish I could explain my point more fully
I wish I knew what you meant by that
I wish to be perfectly fair
I wish to put things as plainly as possible
I wonder how much truth there is in it?
I wonder if you have the smallest recollection of me?
I would agree if I understood
I wouldn't put it just that way
If ever I can repay it, command me
If I mistake not you were there once?
If I speak strongly, it is because I feel strongly
If I were disposed to offer counsel
If I were sure you would not misunderstand my meaning
If you don't mind my saying so
If you insist upon it
If you will pardon me the frankness
In a manner that sometimes terrifies me
In one respect you are quite right
In that case let me rob you of a few minutes
In what case, for example?
Incredible as it sounds, I had for a moment forgotten
Indeed, but it is quite possible
Indeed! How?
Indeed, you are wholly wrong
Indifferently so, I am afraid
Irony was ten thousand leagues from my intention
Is it sane--is it reasonable?
Isn't it amazing?
Isn't it extraordinarily funny?
Isn't it preposterous?
Isn't that a trifle unreasonable?
Isn't that rather a hasty conclusion?
Is that a fair question?
It always seemed to me impossible
It amuses you, doesn't it?
It blunts the sensibilities
It could never conceivably be anything but popular
It depends on how you look at it
It depends upon circumstances
It doesn't sound plausible to me
It has a lovely situation as I remember it
It has amused me hugely
It has been a relief to talk to you
It has been an immense privilege to see you
It has never occurred to me
It is a curious fact
It is a great pleasure to meet you
It is a huge undertaking
It is a most unfortunate affair
It is a perfectly plain proposition
It is a rather melancholy thought
It is a truth universally acknowledged
It is all very inexcusable
It is all very well for you to be philosophical
It is altogether probable
It is an admirable way of putting it
It is an error of taste
It is an extreme case, but the principle is sound
It is an ingenious theory
It is an uncommonly fine description
It is extremely interesting, I can assure you
It is for you to decide
It is historically true
It is I who should ask forgiveness
It is incredible!
It is indeed generous of you to suggest it
It is inexplicable
It is interesting, as a theory
It is literally impossible
It is merely a mood
It is most unfortunate
It is my deliberately formed opinion
It is my opinion you are too conscientious
It is nevertheless true
It is not a matter of the slightest consequence
It is not always fair to judge by appearances
It is not so unreasonable as you think
It is often very misleading
It is one of the grave problems of the day
It is only a fancy of mine
It is perfectly defensible
It is perfectly trite
It is permissible to gratify such an impulse
It is possible, but I rather doubt it
It is quite an easy matter
It is quite conceivable
It is quite too absurd
It is rather startling
It is really impressive
It is really most callous of you to laugh
It is sheer madness
It is sickening and so insufferably arrogant
It is simply a coincidence
It is the most incomprehensible thing in the world
It is to you that I am indebted for all this
It is true, I am grieved to say
It is true none the less
It is very amusing
It is very far from being a fiction
It is very good of you to do this for my pleasure
It is very ingenious
It is very splendid of you
It is wanton capriciousness
It is your privilege to think so
It's a difficult and delicate matter to discuss
It's a matter of immediate urgency
It's absolute folly
It's absurd--it's impossible
It's all nonsense
It's as logical as it can be under the circumstances
It's been a strange experience for you
It's deliciously honest
It's going to be rather troublesome
It's inconceivable that it should ever be necessary
It's mere pride of opinion
It's my chief form of recreation
It's not a matter of vast importance
It's past my comprehension
It's quite wonderful how logical and simple you make it
It's really very perplexing
It's so charming of you to say that
It's so kind of you to come
It's such a bore having to talk about it
It's the natural sequence
It's too melancholy
It's very wonderful
It makes it all quite interesting
It may sound strange to you
It must be a trifle dull at times
It must be fascinating
It must be very gratifying to you
It must have been rather embarrassing
It seems an age since we've last seen you
It seems entirely wonderful to me
It seems incredible
It seems like a distracting dream
It seems preposterous
It seems the height of absurdity
It seems to me that you have a perfect right to do so
It seems unspeakably funny to me
It seems very ridiculous
It shall be as you wish
It should not be objectionable
It sounds plausible
It sounds profoundly interesting
It sounds rather appalling
It sounds very alluring
It strikes me as rather pathetic
It was an unpardonable liberty
It was inevitable that you should say that
It was most stupid of me to have forgotten it
It was not unkindly meant
It was peculiarly unfortunate
It was really an extraordinary experience
It was so incredible
It was the most amazing thing I ever heard
It was very good of you to come out and join us
It will create a considerable sensation
It will divert your thoughts from a mournful subject
It will give me pleasure to do it
It will not alter my determination
It would be ill-advised
It would interest me very much
It would seem to be a wise decision
It would take too long to formulate my thought
J
Join us, please, when you have time
Just trust to the inspiration of the moment
Justify it if you can
L
Let me persuade you
Let me say how deeply indebted I feel for your kindness
Let me speak frankly
Let us grant that for the sake of the argument
Let us take a concrete instance
M
Many thanks--how kind and good you are!
May I ask to whom you allude?
May I be privileged to hear it?
May I speak freely?
May I venture to ask what inference you would draw from that?
Might I suggest an alternative?
Most dangerous!
My attitude would be one of disapproval
My confidence in you is absolute
My idea of it is quite the reverse
My information is rather scanty
My meaning is quite the contrary
My point of view is different, but I shall not insist upon it
My views are altered in many respects
N
No, I am speaking seriously
No, I don't understand it
Not at all
Not to my knowledge
Nothing could be more delightful
Now is it very plain to you?
Now you are flippant
O
Obviously the matter is settled
Of course, but that again isn't the point
Of course I am delighted
Of course I don't want to press you against your will
Of course you will do what you think best
Oh, certainly, if you wish it
Oh, do not form an erroneous impression
Oh, I appreciate that in you!
Oh, that's mere quibbling
Oh, that's splendid of you!
Oh, that was a manner of speaking
Oh, yes, I quite admit that
Oh, yes, you may take that for granted
Oh, you are very bitter
Oh, you may be as scornful as you like
On the contrary, I agree with you thoroughly
On the face of it, it sounds reasonable
One assumption you make I should like to contest
One has no choice to endure it
One must be indulgent under the circumstances
One thing I beg of you
P
Pardon me, but I don't think so
Pardon me, I meant something different
Perhaps I am indiscreet
Perhaps not in the strictest sense
Perhaps you do not feel at liberty to do so
Perhaps you think me ungrateful
Personally I confess to an objection
Please continue to be frank
Please do not think I am asking out of mere curiosity
Please forgive my thoughtlessness
Please make yourself at home
Pray don't apologize
Pray forgive me for intruding on you so unceremoniously
Pray go on!
Precisely, that is just what I meant
Put in that way it certainly sounds very well
Q
Question me, if you wish
Quibbling, I call it
Quite so
Quite the wisest thing you can do
R
Rather loquacious, I think [loquacious = very talkative]
Reading between the lines
Really? I should have thought otherwise
Really--you must go?
Reassure me, if you can
Reflect upon the possible consequences
Relatively speaking
Reluctantly I admit it
Reverting to another matter
S
Shall we have a compact?
She has an extraordinary gift of conversation
She is easily prejudiced
She seems uncommonly appreciative
She will be immensely surprised
Show me that the two cases are analogous
So far so good
So I inferred
So much the better for me
So you observe the transformation?
Something amuses you
Sometimes the absurdity of it occurs to me
Speaking with all due respect
Still, you might make an exception
Strangely it's true
Such conduct seems to me unjustifiable
Surely there can be no question about that
Surely we can speak frankly
Surely you sound too harsh a note
Surely you would not countenance that
T
Tell me in what way you want me to help you
Thank you for telling me that
Thank you for your good intentions
That, at least, you will agree to
That depends on one's point of view
That doesn't sound very logical
That is a counsel of perfection
That is a fair question, perhaps
That is a question I have often proposed to myself
That is a stroke of good fortune
That is a superb piece of work
That is a very practical explanation
That is admirably clear
That is certainly ideal
That is eminently proper
That is hardly consistent
That is inconceivable
That is just like you, if you will forgive me for saying so
That is most fortunate
That is most kind of you
That is most unexpected and distressing
That is not fair--to me
That is not to be lightly spoken of
That is precisely what I mean
That is quite true, theoretically
That is rather a difficult question to answer
That is rather a strange request to make
That is rather awkward
That is really good of you
That is the prevailing idea
That is tragic
That is true and I think you are right
That is very amiable in you
That is very curious
That is very felicitous
That is very gracious
That is what I call intelligent criticism
That is what I meant to tell you
That is a humiliating thought
That is a most interesting idea
That is such a hideous idea
That is the most incredible part of it
That might involve you in life-long self-reproach
That must be exceedingly tiresome
That ought to make you a little lenient
That reassures me
That shows the infirmity of his judgment
That theory isn't tenable
That was exceedingly generous
That was intended ironically
That was very thoughtful of you
That was very well reasoned
That will blast your chances, I am afraid
That will suit me excellently
That would be somewhat serious
That would be very discreditable
The agreement seems to be ideal
The idea is monstrous
The inference is obvious
The notion is rather new to me
The pleasure is certainly not all on your side
The reason is not so far to seek
The same problem has perplexed me
The sentiment is worthy of you
The simplest thing in the world
The situation is uncommonly delicate
The story seems to me incredible
The subject is extremely interesting
The tone of it was certainly hostile
The very obvious moral is this
The whole thing is an idle fancy
Then I have your permission?
Then you're really not disinclined?
Then you merely want to ask my advice?
There are endless difficulties
There are reasons which make such a course impossible
There is a good deal of sense in that
There is a grain of truth in that, I admit
There is food for reflection in that
There is my hand on it
There is no resisting you
There is nothing I should like so much
There is one inevitable condition
There is something almost terrifying about it
There must be extenuating circumstances
They amuse me immensely
This is a most unexpected pleasure
This is charmingly new to me
This is indeed good fortune
This is really appalling
This is really not a laughing matter
Those are my own private feelings
Those things are not forgotten at once
To me it's simply outrageous
To speak frankly, I do not like it
True, I forgot!
U
Undeniably true
Unfortunately I must decline the proposal
Unlikely to be so
Unquestionably superior
Unwholesome influence, I would say
V
Very good, I'll do so
Very well, I will consent
Vivacity is her greatest charm
Virtually accomplished, I believe
Vouch for its truth
W
We are all more or less susceptible
We are drifting away from our point
We are impervious to certain rules
We are merely wasting energy in this duel
We can safely take it for granted
We couldn't have a better topic
We had better agree to differ
We have had some conclusions in common
We must judge it leniently
We must not expose ourselves to misinterpretation
We owe you a debt of gratitude
We shall be glad to see you, if you care to come
We will devoutly hope not
Well, as a matter of fact, I have forgotten
Well done! I congratulate you
Well, I'm not going to argue that
Well, I call it scandalous
Well, I confess they don't appeal to me
Well, more's the pity
Well, perhaps it is none of my affair
Well, that is certainly ideal!
Well, this is good fortune
Well, yes--in a way
Well, you are a dreamer!
What a beautiful idea
What a charming place you have here
What a curious coincidence!
What a pretty compliment!
What a tempting prospect!
What an extraordinary idea!
What are your misgivings?
What can you possibly mean?
What conceivable reason is there for it?
What do you imagine my course should be?
What do you propose?
What is the next step in your argument?
What is there so strange about that?
What, may I ask, is your immediate object?
What unseemly levity on his part
What very kind things you say to me
What would you expect me to do?
What you have just said is even truer than you realize
What you propose is utterly impossible
Who is your sagacious adviser? [sagacious = sound judgment, wise]
Why ask such embarrassing questions?
Why did you desert us so entirely?
Why do you take it so seriously?
Will you allow me to ask you a question?
Will you be more explicit?
Will you have the kindness to explain?
Will you pardon my curiosity?
Will you permit me a brief explanation?
Would you apply that to everyone?
Would you mind telling me your opinion?
Y
Yes and no
Yes, but that is just what I fail to comprehend
Yes, I dare say
Yes, if you will be so good
Yes, it was extraordinarily fine
Yes, that is my earnest wish
Yes, that's undeniable
Yes? You were saying?
You agree with me, I know
You are a profound philosopher
You are a severe critic
You are delightfully frank
You are greatly to be envied
You are heartily welcome
You are incomprehensible
You are incorrigible
You are kind and comforting
You are most kind
You are not consistent
You are not serious, I hope
You are not seriously displeased with me?
You are quite delightful
You are rather puzzling to-day
You are right to remind me of that
You are unduly distressing yourself
You are very complimentary
You are very gracious
You're so tremendously kind about it
You're succeeding admirably
You're taking it all much too seriously
You're talking nonsense!
You're very good, I'm sure
You ask me--but I shouldn't wonder if you knew better than I do
You astonish me greatly
You behaved with great forbearance
You can hardly be serious
You cannot regret it more than I do
You could not pay me a higher compliment
You did it excellently
You did not clearly understand what I meant
You don't seem very enthusiastic
You excite my curiosity
You flatter my judgment
You have a genius for saying the right thing
You have asked me a riddle
You have asked the impossible
You have been wrongly informed
You have done me a great service
You have had a pleasant time, I hope
You have my deepest sympathy
You have my unbounded confidence
You have received a false impression
You have such an interesting way of putting things
You interest me deeply
You judge yourself too severely
You know I'm in an agony of curiosity
You know I'm not given to sentimentality
You know the familiar axiom
You leave no alternative
You look incredulous
You may be sure of my confidence
You may rely on me absolutely
You might make an exception
You must have misunderstood me
You must not fail to command me
You overwhelm me with your kindness
You really insist upon it?
You rebuke me very fairly
You say that as though you were surprised
You see how widely we differ
You see, it's all very vague
You see things rose-colored
You seem to be in a happy mood
You seem to take a very mild interest in what I propose
You shock me more than I can say
You speak in enigmas
You speak with authority
You surely understand my position
You take a great deal for granted
You take a pessimistic view of things
You take me quite by surprise
You will admit I have some provocation
You will become morbid if you are not careful
You will have ample opportunity
You will, of course, remember the incident
You will please not be flippant
You will understand my anxiety
Your argument is facile and superficial
Your consideration is entirely misplaced
Your judgments are very sound
Your logic is as clever as possible
Your opinion will be invaluable to me
Your request is granted before it is made
Your statement is somewhat startling
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