ocean

See Also: SEASCAPES

1. The Alvin [a ship] … moved through the dark sea like a robot fish —Richard Moran
2. The beach is bare as the blue bowl of the sky —John Hall Wheelock

   See Also: BARENESS

3. The beach was splattered with people like bright rags —Nadine Gordimer
4. (Here in front of the summer hotel) the beach waits like an altar —Anne Sexton
5. A beach, white and slender like a young moon —Louis Bromfield
6. A breaker … roaring over the reef like a herd of crazed animals running before a forest fire —Clive Cussler
7. The gentle surf crested in the quick darkness with swirling phosphorous fringes of tiny animals like liquid silver —James Crumley
8. Long blue rollers coming in … each a neat and level line like an ironed crease —George Garrett
9. The ocean frowns like elephant hide —Karl Shapiro
10. The ocean like sleek gray stone —Robinson Jeffers
11. The ocean looked like a wide lavender ribbon stitched up against a pink-and-blue sky —Sue Grafton
12. The ocean rumbled like a train backing up —Anne Sexton
13. The ocean seemed to hover in the distance like a gray haze blending into the gray of the sky —Sue Grafton
14. The rough white crests of waves walk as if in moccasins —Diane Wakoski
15. The sea growled like a dog —John Mortimer
16. The sea has that oily sheen to it, like an empty swimming pool —William Boyd
17. The sea is like a human being … always moving, always something deep in itself stirring it … always wanting —Olive Shreiner
18. The sea [along the beach jetties] trembling among the stones like gelatin —Thomas McGuane
19. The sea whispered and hummed like a great shell held to the ear —Mary Stewart
20. The surf hisses like tambourines —Derek Walcott
21. The tide came in like ten thousand orgasms —Anne Sexton

    See Also: NOISE

22. The water ran over the sand, one wave covering another like the knitting of threads —Rachel Ingalls
23. Waves … black as cypresses, clear as the water of a wishing well —Denise Levertov

    See Also: BLACK, CLARITY

24. Waves crashing with the sound as of breaking biscuits —Vita Sackville-West
25. Waves … leaping like hounds up at the rocks —Josephine Jacobsen
26. Waves like small mountains rose with the shrieking wind into the black sky —James Stern
27. A wave like a vast castle —Arabian Nights
28. Waves, like blue animals stampeding —George Garrett
29. Waves like white feathers —George Garrett
30. The waves pulse … like hearts —Sylvia Plath
31. A wave suddenly raged out like a mountain cat —Stephen Crane
32. Waves that rose like mountains —D. R. MacDonald
33. The waves were skidding in like big buildings that swayed drunkenly and then toppled over on their faces and splattered all over the hard sand —Arthur Miller

    Miller, best known for his plays, has also written short stories … one of which, I Don’t Need You Any More, is the source for this comparison.

34. When the surf is up its roaring fills you like a shell —Marge Piercy
35. The whole expanse of water … glistened like a sheet of stretched blue silk —Robie Macauley