Trees

See Also: LEAVES, NATURE

1. Apple-trees on which the apples looked like great shining soap bubbles —Hans Christian Andersen
2. The bark hung in ribbons from the trunks like the flayed skins of living creatures —R. Wright Campbell
3. Beeches … their beautiful bare green trunks like limbs —Elizabeth Bowen
4. The big pine was like greenish bronze against the October sky —Ellen Glasgow
5. (In the moonlight) the big trees around us looked as bare as gallows —John Braine
6. The birches bend like women —Caroline Finkelstein
7. The birches stand out … like gay banners on white poles —Erich Maria Remarque
8. The birch trees wavered their stark shadows across it [snow] like supplicating arms —Leo Tolstoy
9. Boughs … as rough and hornily buckled as the hands of old farmers —Margaret Laurence
10. [Tree] branches … looked like the powerful contorted fingers of a gigantic hand —Sholem Asch
11. The branches [of a weeping willow] were thin, like the bleached bones of a skeleton —Daphne du Maurier
12. Cedars … black and pointed on the sky like a paper silhouette —William Faulkner
13. Chestnut trees … their clusters of white blossoms like candelabras —Dorothea Straus
14. Copses of hazel and alder stood like a low, petrified forest —H. E. Bates
15. Cypresses rose like cathedral spires —Jilly Cooper
16. Elms rich like cucumbers —Joyce Cary
17. Evergreens as big as tents —Julia O’Faolain
18. Evergreens … out of place [amid the other trees that change their foliage in Autumn] … like poor relations at a rich man’s feast —Jerome K. Jerome
19. Huge hardwood trees draped with clusters of Spanish moss guarded the house from the afternoon heat like overdressed sentinels —Paul Kuttner
20. Magnolia … its chalices of flowers like superb classical emblems —H. E. Bates
21. Maples, burning like bonfires, pure yellow and pure red —Pamela Hansford Johnson
22. My poplars are … like two old neighbors met to chat —Theodosia Garrison
23. The oaks stood silent and tired, like old, worn-out seekers after pleasure, unable to keep up in this grimy, mechanized world of ours —Anthony Powell
24. Palms … like Spanish exclamation points —Sue Grafton
25. A pear tree glistened in bloom like a graceful drift of snow —George Garrett
26. The pear tree lets its petals drop like dandruff on a tabletop —W. D. Snodgrass
27. Pines … moaning like the sea —John Greenleaf Whittier
28. Pines tossing their green manes like frightened horses —George Garrett
29. The pines were packed like a quiver of arrows —John Farris
30. The pine-trees roared like waves in their topmost branches, their stems creaked like the timber of ships —Katherine Mansfield
31. A poplar covered with snow looked, in the bluish mist, like a giant in a winding sheet —Anton Chekhov
32. Poplars like dark feathers against the green and gold sunset —Sharon Sheehe Stark
33. The poplars stood like tall guards, attentive, at attention —Delmore Schwartz

    A week after the poet entered this in his diary as a fragment he incorporated it into a poem as follows: “The poplar stood like a rifle.”

34. Poplars that rose above the mist were like a beach stirred by the wind —Gustave Flaubert
35. Red maples and orange oaks, shaped like hands —Jonathan Valin
36. The redwoods let sink their branches like arms that try to hold buckets filling slowly with diamonds —James Dickey
37. Rows of bay trees like children’s green lollipops —Graham Masterton
38. Saw the bare branches of a tree, like fine lace, against the blackness [of garden] —Jean Rhys
39. The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry —Bliss Carman
40. The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains —Eudora Welty
41. Tall trees like towers —Carlos Baker
42. A thick low-hanging branch sags like a wounded arm —John Rechy
43. The tops of pines moonlit, like floating Christmas trees —Frank Conroy
44. The tree, in full bloom, was like a huge mountain lit with candles —Alice Walker
45. Trees against walls, flattened like spies in old movies —Lisa Ress
46. The trees and the shrubbery seemed well-groomed and sociable, like pleasant people —Willa Cather
47. The tree sat like a party umbrella (trunk sturdy, branches gently arching) —W. P. Kinsella
48. Trees bent like arches —Graham Swift
49. The trees cast still shadows like intricate black laces —H. G. Wells
50. Trees darkening like clusters of frightened wrens —Philip Levine
51. The trees dimmed the whiteness [of snow] like a sparse coat of hair —John Cheever
52. The trees drooped like old men with back problems —T. Coraghessan Boyle
53. Trees grew close and spread out like bouquets —Stephen Crane
54. The trees have a look as if they bore sad names —Wallace Stevens
55. Trees … hunched against the dawn sky like shaggy dark animals, like buffalo —Alice Munro
56. A tree slender as life, and as tall —Kenneth Patchen
57. Trees … like burnt-out torches —Oscar Wilde
58. Trees … like fresh-painted green —Danny Santiago
59. Trees … like prophet’s fingers —Dylan Thomas
60. Trees like tall ships —Sharon Sheehe Stark
61. Trees [planted 40 years ago] … now stately, like patriarchs whose wisdom lives in their mere physical presence, after all sight and mind have been feebled —Paul Horgan
62. Trees spaced out in ordered formality … like a ballet of spinsters —W. Somerset Maugham
63. Trees spread like green lather —F. Scott Fitzgerald
64. Trees … spread their scant shade upon the ground like fine strands of hair —Yitzhak Shenhar
65. The trees stood motionless and white like figures in a marble frieze —Helen Keller
66. (In the park) the trees stood reticent as old men —Helen Hudson
67. Trees … tall and straight as the masts of ships —Donald Hall
68. Trees tall as mythical giants —David Ignatow
69. Trees … vibrating headily like coins shaken in a dark money-box —Robert Culff

    See Also: VIBRATIONS

70. The trees were beginning to put out buds like tiny wings —Helen Hudson
71. The trees were plucked like iron bars —Wallace Stevens
72. Trees whose branches spread like hugging, possessive arms —John Rechy
73. Trees with branches like the groping fingers of men long dead —Loren D. Estleman
74. Trunks like thick skirts hanging in folds —Paul Theroux
75. Twigs grasped for the sky like frayed electrical wires —Z. Vance Wilson
76. Willow trees … their trailing leaves hung like waterfalls in the morning air —Eudora Welty