Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Joy (Noun)
Joy is like a fitful gleam,
Discerned through shadowy mists of dream.
—Grant Allen
For joys that are gone, when remembered again,
Like flowers bereft of their sweets by the frost,
Are poor withered things that do but retain
The thorns of the rose, when its fragrance is lost.
—Eliza F. Andrews
Joy like the joy of a leaf that unfolds in the sun;
Joy like the joy of a child in the borders of sleep.
—Richard Hovey
For joys are like sunbeams,—more fleeting than they,
And sorrows cast shadows between;
And friends that in moments of brightness are won,
Like gossamer, only are seen—in the sun.
—Samuel Lover
Joy is like restless day; but peace divine
Like quiet night;
Lead me, O Lord,—till perfect Day shall shine
Through Peace to Light.
—Adelaide Anne Procter
Joy is like the ague; one good day between two bad ones.
—Danish Proverb
Joy in this world is like a rainbow, which in the morning only appears in the west, or towards the evening sky; but in the latter hours of day casts its triumphal arch over the east, or morning sky.
—John Paul Richter
As bitter wormwood never doth delicious honey yield,
Nor can the cheerful grape be reap’d from thistles in the field;
So who, in this uncertain life, deceitful joys pursue,
They fruits do seek upon such trees on which it never grew.
—Florence Wilson