See Also: AGITATION, HEARTBEAT

1. Hard hearts, and cold, like weights of icy stone —Percy Bysshe Shelley
2. The heart errs like the head —Anatole France
3. The heart (especially the Jewish heart) is a fiddle: you pull the strings, and out come songs, mostly plaintive —Sholom Aleichem
4. The heart is like the sky, a part of heaven, but changes night and day too, like the sky —Lord Byron
5. The heart is like a creeping plant, which withers unless it has something around which it can entwine —Charles James Apperley
6. The heart is like an instrument whose strings steal nobler music from Life’s many frets —Gerald Massey
7. Heart like a child —Mary Hood
8. The heart of the wise, like a mirror, should reflect all objects, without being sullied by any —Confucius
9. Hearts isolated behind the bars of ribs and jumping around like monkeys —Yehuda Amichai
10. Hearts … mellow as well-tilled soil in which good seed flourishes —Valdimir G. Korolenko
11. Hearts opening like jaws —Sharon Olds
12. Heart trembling a little like the door for Elijah the Prophet —Yehuda Amichai
13. A heart without affection is like a purse without money —Benjamin Mandelstamm
14. Her heart divided like two wings —Carson McCullers
15. Her heart sank like a wounded bird —Ellen Glasgow
16. His heart ached like Niagara Falls —Frank O’Hara
17. His heart is like a viper, hissing and spitting poison at God —Jonathan Edwards
18. His heart … like the sea, ever open, brave and free —F. E. Weatherly
19. His heart sagged in its net of veins like a rock in a sling —George Garrett
20. His heart swelled up in his throat like a toad —Oakley Hall
21. His heart was open as the day —Anon ballad, “Old Grimes”
22. The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven —Martin Luther
23. The human heart is like a millstone in a mill: when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds and bruises the wheat to flour; if you put no wheat, it still grinds on, but then ‘tis itself it grinds and wears away —Martin Luther
24. A man’s heart is like a sponge, just soaked with emotion and sentiment of which he can squeeze a little bit out for every pretty woman —Helen Rowland
25. A man’s heart, like an automobile, is always apt to skid and ditch him just at the psychological moment when he thinks he has it under perfect control —Helen Rowland
26. My heart clenched like a fist —Charles Johnson

    The fist comparison is also effective for describing a grim, pinched facial expression.

    See Also: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SERIOUS

27. My heart is like an apple-tree whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit —Christina Rossetti

    The first stanza of A Birthday, from which this is taken, contains yet another heart comparison: “My heart is like a rainbow shell that paddles in a halcyon sea.”

28. My heart is like an outbound ship that at its anchor swings —John Greenleaf Whittier
29. My heart is like a singing bird —Christina Rossetti
30. My little heart pops out, like springs —Diane Wakoski

    This simile is the title of a poem which begins with yet another simile: “A little spirit in me that’s wound up like a clock.”

31. The heart is like a creeping plant, which withers unless it has something around which it can entwine —Charles James Apperley
32. Without a loved one my heart’s like a beet root choked with chickweed —A Broken-Hearted Gardener, anonymous 19th century verse