See Also: AGITATION

1. Chest chiming like a cathedral gone berserk —Jonathan Gash
2. Feel his heart beating wildly inside his child’s body, like a bird in a frail cage —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
3. Heart banged like a drum —Katherine Mansfield
4. Heart beating like an African drum —Hugh Walpole
5. (Mrs. Arkin’s) heart fluttered like a bird’s wing —Gloria Norris
6. Heart jumping like a puppy —Anne Sexton
7. Heart noisy as a crockcrow —Walter de la Mare

   See Also: NOISE

8. Heart pulsing like a womb which has just given birth —Erica Jong
9. Heart … running like a hamster on a wheel —Diane Ackerman
10. Hearts … like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
11. A heart that ran up and down within the cage of ribs like a restless panther —Leonard Casper
12. Heart thumping like a June bug —Anne Sexton
13. Heart thumping like an outboard —Richard Ford
14. His heart … beat high and fast like the ticking of a watch under a pillow —Frank Swinnerton
15. His heart began to give off tremendous explosions like a rifle —Eudora Welty
16. His heart beating, fiercely, like a small clock —Celia Dale
17. His heart flapped like a mass of furled banners —Bernard Malamud
18. His heart fluttered like that of a small bird about to be stoned —Alice Walker
19. My heart leaps forward like a hungry dog —Karl Shapiro
20. My heart pounds away, confident as a clock —Denise Levertov
21. My heart pounds down on itself like an anvil —Richard Ford
22. My heart staggers like a drunk —George Garrett
23. My heart was beating intolerably like a held bird —Reynolds Price
24. The noise that his heart valve produced sounded like two mechanical mice making love in a spoon drawer —Tom Robbins
25. Heart like a bass drum in her chest —Susan Richards Shreve
26. Heart [of a skylark] … drumming like a motor —Ted Hughes
27. (In his ears his) heart sounded like jungle drums —Mary Hedin