See Also: ABANDONMENT, ALONENESS

1. (I was) as hollow and empty as the spaces between the stars —Raymond Chandler
2. Barren as a fistful of rock —A. E. Maxwell
3. Barren as an iceberg of vegetation —Anon
4. Barren as crime —Algernon Charles Swinburne
5. Barren as death —John Ruskin

   William Blake voiced the same thought, using ‘void’ instead of ‘barren.’

6. Barren as routine —G. K. Chesterton
7. Blank and bare and still as a polar wasteland —George Garrett
8. Blank as a sheet —Reynolds Price
9. Blank as a vandalized clock —Lorrie Moore
10. Blank as death —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
11. Blank as the eyeballs of the dead —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
12. Blank as the sun after the birth of night —Percy Bysshe Shelley
13. Deserted as a park bench after a snowstorm —Anon
14. Desolate as a summer resort in midwinter —Richard Harding Davis
15. Emptied like a cup of coffee —John Ashbery
16. The emptiness inside was like an explosion —Eleanor Clark
17. Emptiness so vast it yawned like the pit of hell —George Garrett
18. The emptiness was intense, like the stillness in a great factory when the machinery stops running —Willa Cather
19. Empty-armed, empty-handed as a lone winter tree —George Garrett
20. Empty as a barn before harvest —Erich Maria Remarque
21. Empty as a broken bowl —George Garrett
22. Empty as a canyon —Elizabeth Spencer
23. Empty as a church on Monday morning —Anon
24. Empty as a diary without entries —Anon
25. Empty as a dry shell on the beach —Daphne du Maurier
26. Empty as an air balloon —Thomas G. Fessendon
27. Empty as an egg basket —Eudora Welty
28. Empty as an office building at night —Anon
29. (He was … ) empty as an old bottle —F. Scott Fitzgerald
30. Empty as a person without a past, only present —Anon
31. (Lonely afternoons, days, evenings) empty as a rusty coffee can —Diane Wakoski
32. Empty as a waiting tomb —Louis Bromfield
33. Empty as death’s head —Daniel Berrigan
34. (Eyes) empty as knotholes in a fence —Etheridge Knight
35. (The campus is as) empty as space —Babs H. Deal
36. Empty as the beach after a snowstorm —Anon
37. (The shuttle after morning rush hour is near) empty, like a littered beach after tourists have all gone home —Thomas Pynchon
38. Faceless as a masked bandit —Anon
39. Feel as dead and empty as a skeleton on a desert —Robert Traver
40. Feel as empty as a popbottle in the street —Marge Piercy
41. A feeling of emptiness, as if I had cut an artery in my wrist and all the blood had drained out —Aharon Megged
42. Flat and empty as the palm of his hand —Helen Hudson

    In Hudson’s novel, Criminal Trespass, the comparison’s frame of reference is a flat and empty field.

43. (The street below was) hollow as a bone —Peter Matthiessen
44. Hollow as a politician’s head —Charles Johnson
45. Hollow as skeleton eyes —Lorrie Moore
46. A hollow feeling inside, big as a watermelon —Jay Parini
47. I’m empty … like a sand bag —Tina Howe
48. It’s like stepping into a church in midweek: Space abounding and no one to fill it —Helen Maclnnes
49. Look as hollow as a ghost —William Shakespeare
50. People, like houses, may be taken over by spirits and inhabited by ghosts when they feel they are deserted and empty —Gerald Kersh
51. So empty you could fire a canon and not hit anybody —Anon
52. Sterile as a mule —James Morrow
53. Sterile as a stone —Cynthia Ozick
54. Void as death —William Blake
55. The weight of his emptiness dragged like a dead dog chained around his neck —Bernard Malamud