city

See Also: PLACES

1. Alleys open and fall around me like footsteps of a newly shod horse —Frank O’Hara
2. The ancient oaks … arched over the avenue like a canopy —John Kennedy Toole

   See Also: TREES

3. The asphalt shines like a silk hat —Derek Walcott
4. Bars were strung along the street like bright beads —Margaret Millar

   In her novel, Experiment in Springtime, Millar strings the actual names of the bars to this simile.

5. A big limestone church hangs like a gray curtain under the street lamp —John Updike
6. The black night falls like a shroud over the whole town —Lu Hsñn

   See Also: NIGHT

7. A brutally ugly, utilitarian place, like a mill town without the mill —Jonathan Valin
8. The city seems to uncurl like some hibernating animal dug out of its winter earth —Lawrence Durrell
9. The city unwrinkles like an old tortoise —Lawrence Durrell
10. Far below and around lay the city like a ragged purple dream —O. Henry
11. In the distance, the city rose like a cluster of warts on the side of the mountain —Flannery O’Connor
12. The noon sun put a glaze on them [the sidewalks], so that the cement burned and glittered like glass —Carson McCullers

    See Also: SUN

13. The passing scene spread outside the windows like a plentiful, prim English tea —Dorothea Straus
14. People [on crowded sidewalk] … jostling along like sheep in a pen that has no end —Maeve Brennan

    See Also: CROWDS

15. The public streets, like built canals of air —David Denby
16. Raw grass sprouted from the cobbles like hair from a deafened ear —Philip Levine
17. The shadows of the palms lay like splash marks of dark liquid on the pavement —Ross Macdonald
18. The shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen —Robert Louis Stevenson
19. A steep lane, like a staircase —Émile Zola
20. The street as gray as newspapers —Marge Piercy

    See Also: GRAY

21. The street lay still as a photograph —Jack Finney
22. The street shone … like a fire in a forest —Robert Louis Stevenson
23. The streets looked as if they were made of silver, they were so bright and glistening —Oscar Wilde,
24. The streets (of Bethany, Massachusetts), sparkled like high-gloss picture postcards sold in drugstores of small New England villages —Susan Richards Shreve
25. Streets tangled like old string —W. H. Auden
26. Street … that neither stank or sparkled but merely had a look of having been turned, like the collar on an old shirt —Hortense Calisher
27. The town, like an upturned sky, swollen with human lights —Albert Camus
28. The town [seen from a distance] looked small and clean and perfect, as if it were one of those miniature plastic towns sitting beside a child’s electric railroad —Ann Tyler
29. A view (of Brewer) spread out below like a carpet —John Updike
30. Village … jumbled and colorful like a postcard —George Garrett
31. Wide, smooth, empty sidewalks looked like long canals of grey eyes —Ayn Rand