Explore "Some Verses: Sonnets: THE JOY OF LIFE" by Helen Hay Whitney on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Her hair was twined with vine leaves thro' the gold, / The leopard skin about her shoulders flung / Showed gleams of her as marble -- fair and cold; / I breathed not -- listening to the song she sung.
Hither and thither thro' the solemn world, / Glory of purple, passionate blazing red / Glints thro' the gloom, and thro' the grey is swirled -- / Ah! but the leaves twined sweet about her head.
"Heedless -- men pass me in their search for life, / Hunting for altars to their souls' fine fires, / Crying the sun or joy of toil and strife / And know not that 'tis I -- their heart desires.
They dream not that the sheen on peacock's breast, / The haze and perfume of a Summer's day, / The silver stealing o'er the twilight West / Are joys more rich than all the world's display."