agitation

See Also: EXCITEMENT, HEARTBEAT, NERVOUSNESS, TREMBLING

1. Agitated with delight as a waving sea —Arabian Nights
2. Agitation … like insects coming alive in the spring —William Goyen
3. Calm as a tornado —Anon
4. Composed as an egg gatherer in a rattlesnake pit —Harry Prince
5. Disturbing as decay in a carcass —Julia O’Faolain
6. Feel like he had a mouse water skiing in his stomach —Joseph Wambaugh
7. Feel my insides slipping away as if they are on a greased slide —W. P. Kinsella
8. Felt as if his heart was beating itself to death in some empty hollow —Oscar Wilde
9. Felt her heart make little leaps, as though it might creep onto her tongue and expose something —Leigh Allison Wilson
10. Felt his heart quicken, as a horse quickens at the faint warning touch of the spur —Ben Ames Williams
11. (Arrived in the library with every nerve twittering) felt like a tree full of starlings —M. J. Farrell
12. Froze my heart like a block of ice —T. Coraghessan Boyle
13. Hearts drumming like wings —Paul Horgan
14. Her heart leaped like a fish —Katherine Mansfield
15. Her heart … plucking inside her chest like a bird in a bag —Brian Moore
16. Her heart … plucking inside her chest like a bird in a bag —Brian Moore
17. His heart pumping like a boiler about to blow —Ira Wood
18. Her heart … thundering like ten hearts —Sharon Sheehe Stark
19. Her stomach leaped up inside her like a balloon —William Styron
20. His heart beat so hard he sometimes fondled it with his hands as though trying to calm a wild bird that wanted to fly away —Bernard Malamud
21. His heart chilled like a stone in a creek —John Farris
22. His heart … like a madly bouncing ball, beating the breath out of his body —Helen Hudson
23. His heart moving so fast it was like one of those motorcycles at fairs that the fellow drives around the walls of a pit —Flannery O’Connor
24. His heart racing like a quick little animal in a cage —T. Coraghessan Boyle
25. His heart sinks like a soap in a bucket —Robert Coover
26. His heart thundered like horses galloping over a wooden bridge —Gerald Kersh
27. His heart whammed like a wheezing steam engine —Bernard Malamud
28. His soul seething within him like a Welsh rabbit at the height of its fever —P. G. Wodehouse

    See Also: SOUL

29. I could hear my heart, like somebody hammering on a tree —John D. MacDonald
30. It seemed like something snapped inside of me, something like a suspender strap —John Steinbeck
31. (Scandal and chaos … ) kicked up like chicken feathers —Pat Ellis Taylor
32. My heart behaved like a fresh-caught trout —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
33. My heart felt like a rabbit running wildly around inside my rib cage —James Crumley
34. My heart jumped like a fox —Scott Spencer
35. My heart leaped like a big bass after a willow fly —Borden Deal
36. My heart pounded like a drowning swimmer’s —Frank Conroy
37. My heart pounded … like the hoofbeats of a horse —Charles Johnson
38. My heart stopped as if a knife had been driven through it —Rudyard Kipling
39. My heart turned over like a dirtbike in the wrong gear —T. Coraghessan Boyle
40. My heart would flutter like a duck in a puddle, and if I tried to outdo it and speak, it would get right smack up in my throat and choke me like a cold potato —Irving Stone
41. My stomach plunged like an elevator out of control —T. Coraghessan Boyle
42. Nerves melt like jellyfish —Derek Walcott
43. Placid as a riptide —Joseph Wambaugh
44. The pressure was building in me like beer on a full bladder —T. Coraghessan Boyle
45. Seemed to smoulder like a tar-barrel on the point of explosion —Lawrence Durrell
46. The sense of horror and failure had clutched his spine like the wet, wrinkled hand of a drowned woman —William Styron
47. Set my heart to rocking like a boat in a swell —Edna St. Vincent Millay
48. She explodes like a chestnut thrown on the fire —Colette