snow

See Also: NATURE, WEATHER

1. Big flakes … floating like parachutes in the still air —Frank Ross
2. Drifts [of snow] heaping themselves like scaling-ladders against the walls —O. Henry
3. (Those) drifts of soft snow looked like featherbeds —Scott Spencer
4. A dry pellety snow hitting the sidewalk like uncooked grains of rice —Marge Piercy
5. Falling snow … sinking into the ground as slowly as breadcrumbs thrown to fishes sink through water —Boris Pasternak
6. The fine snow had melted (on his hair and his eyelashes) and sparkled now like raindrops in a sunshower —Harvey Swados
7. Flakes … bob and sail like moths across the driveway —Anon
8. The flakes fall like asterisks —James Reiss
9. Flakes of snow … falling like feathers from the sky —Grimm Brothers
10. The flakes … seemed thick as tarts —Peter De Vries
11. Flakes swarming around the streetlamps like soft, huge moths —George Garrett
12. The flakes were as large as an hour’s circular tatting —O. Henry

    The comparison is a vivid one but with tatting no longer a familiar pastime, a brief explanation would be needed for any but needlework aficionados.

13. Flakes were like feathers —Frank Swinnerton
14. (The sundial was) heaped with a foot-high frosting of snow like a tall, fantastic cake —Davis Grubb
15. (Snow was still falling,) heavy flakes like goose feathers —Jilly Cooper
16. (A row of) icicles like the crystal drops of a chandelier hung from the roof —H. E. Bates
17. Icicles like the teeth of fish —Saul Bellow
18. Icicles sparkling at the eaves like pendant blades of glass —William Styron
19. It [snow] fell like a great armistice, bringing all simple struggles to an end —Elizabeth Hardwick
20. It looks pretty in the garden [in the snow], like a living Christmas —Janet Flanner
21. A light fringe of snow lay like a cape on the shoulders of his overcoat and like toecaps on the toes of his galoshes —James Joyce
22. Lightly and whitely as wheat from the grain, thickly and quickly as thoughts through the brain, so fast and so dumb do the snowflakes come —Grace Denio Lichtfield
23. Like an army defeated, the snow has retreated —William Wordsworth
24. Long icicles, like crystal daggers —Oscar Wilde
25. (I looked down at the street … at the) masses of snow like dirty suds —Saul Bellow
26. Melted [snow], leaving the gray grass like a pallet, closely pressed —Wallace Stevens
27. One of those brilliant, glittery snows that ought to emit some glorious sound with each crystal falling to earth, something transcendent like a Bach cantata —Lynne Sharon Schwartz

    The musical comparison is particularly appropriate to the novel, Disturbances in the Field, in which it appeared, as its main character is a classical musician.

28. The pilings of snow were like the white waves of a white sea —Truman Capote
29. (Her feet disperse the) powdery snow, that rises up like smoke —William Wordsworth
30. Snow as smooth to see as cake frosting and as light as powder —Ernest Hemingway
31. The snow at the roadside full of bubbles like white of egg beaten up —Joyce Cary
32. The snow began to spill down like quiet feathers —H. E. Bates
33. The snow came down last night like moths —Richard Wilbur

    A simile to begin a poem entitled First Snow in Alsace.

34. Snow … came in thick tufts like new wool, washed before the weaver spins it —Leslie Silko
35. Snow … comes down like lace —Marge Piercy
36. Snow … decking the fields and trees with white as for a fairy wedding —Jerome K. Jerome
37. Snow … driving him like a fusillade of frozen needles —T. Coraghessan Boyle
38. Snow fell in swift spirals, floating like gulls into the tree branches —Jean Stafford
39. Snowflakes dove at our window like fat moths —Donald McCaig
40. Snowflakes grew bigger and bigger, till at last they looked like big white chickens —Hans Christian Andersen
41. Snowflakes … large as white carnations —Janet Flanner
42. Snow flakes shone like silver —Hugh Walpole
43. Snowflakes sifting like crumbs into the yard —Paul Theroux
44. The [blindingly thick] snowflakes tormented him like a swarm of silver bees —G. K. Chesterton
45. The snow [during snow storm] flapped like an endless white blanket —Scott Spencer
46. Snow flying quick as thought —Adrienne Rich
47. Snow had begun to fall. It made the sidewalk a spotted hide, like leopard skin —Rosellen Brown
48. Snow had fallen like a fine dust —Martin Cruz Smith
49. The snow is now coming like dollar-sized confetti —John Wainwright
50. Snow … it’s like inebriation because it’s very pleasing when it’s coming, but very unpleasant when it’s going —Ogden Nash
51. The snow lay soft like a down pillow —Thomas Mann
52. Snow lies like a down mattress over the earth —Lu Hsün
53. Snow … lighted the streets like moonlight —Jean Stafford
54. Snow, like sheep’s wool, only whiter —Gillian Tindall
55. The snow like the fuzz the morning after too much Stolichnaya —Derek Lambert

    Lambert’s suspense novel, The Red House, is set in Russia and so the reference to a Russian drink.

56. Snow poured down like salt —Helen Hudson
57. Snow … settling like wool on the unmown grass —H. E. Bates
58. Snow smooth as the sky can shed —William Wordsworth
59. Snow … soft as froth and easy as ashes —W. R. Rodgers
60. Snow sparkles like eyesight falling to earth —Wallace Stevens
61. Snow was falling in larger flakes, like a multitude of frozen moths —Ellen Glasgow
62. The snow was yellow … with orange seeping into its honey color like an aftertaste at sunset —Boris Pasternak
63. Snow will settle like a sheet over all live color —Frank O’Hara