Reference > Quotations > Frank J. Wilstach, comp. > A Dictionary of Similes
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Frank J. Wilstach, comp.  A Dictionary of Similes.  1916.
 
Swift
 
  As the breezes swift.
            —Thomas Aird		  1
  Swift as the lightning flash.
            —Mark Akenside		  2
  Swift as a cannon ball.
            —Anonymous		  3
  Swift as fate.
            —Anonymous		  4
  Swift as kindling flames arise.
            —Anonymous		  5
  Swift as the glance of a falling star.
            —Anonymous		  6
  Swifter than fleeing Daphne’s twinkling feet.
            —Anonymous		  7
  Swift as the steed that feels the slackened rein.
            —Anonymous		  8
  Swift like a simoon of the desert.
            —Anonymous		  9
  Swifter than the falcon.
            —Max Beerbohm		  10
  Swift as a sun-beam.
            —Thomas Blacklock		  11
  Swift as the summer lightning.
            —R. D. Blackmore		  12
  Swift as arrow.
            —William Blake		  13
  Swift as the eye can mark.
            —Henry H. Brownell		  14
  Swift as Jove’s lightning.
            —William Byrd		  15
Swift almost as a human smile may chase
A frown from some conciliated face.
            —Pedro Calderón de la Barca		  16
  Swefte as descendeynge lemes [rays] of roddie lyghte plonged to the hulstred [secret] bedde of loveynge [washing] seas.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  17
  Swefte as a feether’d takel [Arrow].
            —Thomas Chatterton		  18
  Swefte as my wyshe.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  19
  Swift as the flying clouds distilling rain.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  20
  Swefte as the rayne-storme toe the erthe alyghtes.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  21
  Swefte, as the rayne uponne an Aprylle daie.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  22
  Swefte as the roareynge wyndes.
            —Thomas Chatterton		  23
  Swift as fowel in flight.
            —Geoffrey Chaucer		  24
  As swifte as pelet out of gonne.
            —Geoffrey Chaucer		  25
  Swift as a spirit.
            —Samuel Taylor Coleridge		  26
  Swift as dreams.
            —Samuel Taylor Coleridge		  27
  Swift as a sun ray.
            —Eliza Cook		  28
  Swift as a lover’s dreams.
            —Barry Cornwall		  29
  Swift as Care.
            —Nathaniel Cotton		  30
  As swift and fierce as tempest from the north.
            —Abraham Cowley		  31
  Swift as the wings of Morn.
            —Abraham Cowley		  32
  Swifter than a shadow flee.
            —William Cowper		  33
  Swift as a star falls through the night.
            —George Darley		  34
  Swift as a sunshot dart of light.
            —George Darley		  35
  Swift as a whirlwind.
            —Thomas Dekker		  36
  Swift as dead leaves by tempest borne.
            —Aubrey De Vere		  37
  Swift as the scattered clouds on high.
            —Alfred Domett		  38
As swift as the glance of the arrowy lance
That the storm spirit flings from high.
            —Joseph Rodman Drake		  39
  Swift as the wings of sound.
            —George Eliot		  40
  A swift movement, which was like a chained up resolution set free at last.
            —George Eliot		  41
  Swift as fate.
            —Philip Freneau		  42
  Swift as vision.
            —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe		  43
  Swift as the flight of lightning through the air.
            —William Harbington		  44
  Swift as a flood of fire.
            —Homer (Pope)		  45
  Swift as the vulture leaping on his prey.
            —George Eliot		  46
  Swift as the wind.
            —George Eliot		  47
  Swift as a swallow heading south.
            —Laurence Hope		  48
Swifter than the rush of wind
That lifts the sea-gull off the lake.
            —Douglas Hyde		  49
  Swift as a star.
            —Sir William Jones		  50
  Swift as a fathoming plummet down he fell.
            —John Keats		  51
                As swift
As bird on wing to breast its eggs again.
            —George Eliot		  52
  Swift as fairy thought.
            —George Eliot		  53
  Swifter than centaurs after rapine bent.
            —George Eliot		  54
  Swifter than sight.
            —George Eliot		  55
  Swift as the cloven tongues of Pentecost.
            —Harriet E. Hamilton King		  56
  Flies as swift as shafts the bowmen pour.
            —Andrew Lang		  57
  Swift as the lightning’s rapid flame darts on the unsuspecting sight.
            —John Langhorne		  58
  Swift as a flash.
            —Henry W. Longfellow		  59
  Swift as the thunderbolt.
            —Richard Lovelace		  60
  Swift as the sea-bird’s wing.
            —Samuel Lover		  61
  Swift as runs a wind-wave over grass.
            —Gerald Massey		  62
  Swift as a blush in the cheeks of seventeen.
            —George Meredith		  63
  Swift as the lightning glance.
            —John Milton		  64
  Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star.
            —John Milton		  65
  Swift as Death’s own arrows dart.
            —James Montgomery		  66
  Swifter than the frighted dove.
            —James Montgomery		  67
  Fly swifter than light.
            —Dinah Maria Mulock		  68
  Swift as mercury.
            —Thomas Nash		  69
  Swift, like some fierce bird of prey.
            —Robert Pollok		  70
  Swift as an arrow soaring from the bow.
            —Alexander Pope		  71
  Swift as a cloud gust-driven from the sun.
            —T. Buchanan Read		  72
  Swift as a shadow o’er the meadow grass chased by the sunshine.
            —T. Buchanan Read		  73
  Swift as signal fires.
            —T. Buchanan Read		  74
  Swift as memory.
            —Edouard Rod		  75
  Swift as the fleeting shades upon the golden corn.
            —Nicholas Rowe		  76
  Swift as a hawk.
            —Charles Sangster		  77
  Like a sunbeam, swift.
            —Sir Walter Scott		  78
  Swift as a shadow.
            —William Shakespeare		  79
  Swift as breathed stags.
            —William Shakespeare		  80
  Swift as frenzy’s thoughts.
            —William Shakespeare		  81
  Swift as lead.
            —William Shakespeare		  82
                As swift
As meditation, or the thoughts of love.
            —William Shakespeare		  83
  Swift as quicksilver.
            —William Shakespeare		  84
                Swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings.
            —William Shakespeare		  85
  Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.
            —William Shakespeare		  86
  Swift as thought.
            —William Shakespeare		  87
  Swift in motion as a ball.
            —William Shakespeare		  88
  Swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer’s bucket.
            —William Shakespeare		  89
  Swifter than the moon’s sphere.
            —William Shakespeare		  90
  Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  91
  Swift as fire.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  92
  Swift as greyhounds.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  93
  Swift as leaves on autumn’s tempest shed.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  94
  Swift as smoke from a volcano springs.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  95
  Swift as twinkling beams.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  96
  Swifter than summer’s flight.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  97
  Swifter than youth’s delight.
            —Percy Bysshe Shelley		  98
  Swift as a beam of morning.
            —Elizabeth S. Sheppard		  99
  Swift as an arrow in its flight.
            —Robert Southey		  100
  Swift as a falling meteor.
            —Robert Southey		  101
  Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing.
            —Robert Southey		  102
  Swift away like fabrics in the summer’s clouds.
            —Robert Southey		  103
  Swift as any bucke in chace.
            —Edmund Spenser		  104
  More swift than Myrrh’ or Daphne in her race.
            —Edmund Spenser		  105
  Swift as the flame devours the crackling wood.
            —Statius		  106
  Swift as the headlong torrents of a flood.
            —Edmund Spenser		  107
  Swift as a passing bird.
            —Robert Louis Stevenson		  108
  Swift and steadfast as a sea-mew’s wing.
            —Algernon Charles Swinburne		  109
  Swift as a shadow.
            —Algernon Charles Swinburne		  110
  Swift as eternity.
            —Arthur Symons		  111
  As swift as fiery lightning kindled new.
            —Torquato Tasso		  112
  As swift as the eagle flieth.
            —Old Testament		  113
  As swift as the roes upon the mountains.
            —Old Testament		  114
  Swift as the waters.
            —Old Testament		  115
  Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle.
            —Old Testament		  116
  Swifter than the eagles of the heaven.
            —Old Testament		  117
  Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
            —Old Testament		  118
  Swift as desire.
            —Thomas Tickell		  119
  Swift as the motions of desire.
            —Isaac Watts		  120
  Swift as the Polar breeze.
            —Henry Kirke White		  121
  Swift as the eagle’s glance of fire.
            —John Greenleaf Whittier		  122
  Swift as a rocketing woodcock.
            —Harry Leon Wilson		  123
  Swift as a Thracian Nymph o’er field and height.
            —William Wordsworth		  124
  Swift as darted flame.
            —Edward Young		  125
 
 
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