Happiness by Jane Kenyon There’s just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. And how can you not forgive? You make a feast in honor of what was lost, and take from its place the finest garment, which you saved for an occasion you could not imagine, and you weep night and day to know that you were not abandoned, that happiness saved its most extreme form for you alone. No, happiness is the uncle you never knew about, who flies a single-engine plane onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes into town, and inquires at every door until he finds you asleep midafternoon as you so often are during the unmerciful hours of your despair. It comes to the monk in his cell. It comes to the woman sweeping the street with a birch broom, to the child whose mother has passed out from drink. It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker, and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots in the night. It even comes to the boulder in the perpetual shade of pine barrens, to rain falling on the open sea, to the wineglass, weary of holding wine. | | Throughout the use of language and structure Kenyon’s poem, “Happiness” conveys how happiness comes to the people even when you were least expecting it to come. The persona uses the symbol of an “uncle you never knew about, who flies in a single engine plane” to reveal the theme of happiness. In the poem central message is that, happiness is a simple thing and everyone can receive it in every situations. Jane Kenyon uses her style in order to reveal how simple happiness is. Persona uses language in order to convey how happiness is a simple thing and it can be received in every moment regardless of the situation you are in. In the third stanza of the poem, the persona says, “No, happiness is the uncle you never/ knew about, who flies a single-engine plane/ .../ and inquires at every door/ .../ until he finds you asleep midafternoon.” The uncle you never knew about is a symbolism for happiness in this poem, which depicts how happiness can arrive to you in any moment. And the happiness is “the uncle you never knew about” because the persona shows that the happiness thinks of you, even if you don’t know he exists, and it can show up to find you in any moment, just as an uncle you never knew about. With these lines persona shows that in the end happiness comes to everyone, even it takes long, happiness cares for you and finds you. As the poem continues, in the fourth stanza persona gives series of examples for the situations which happiness can arrive: “It comes to the monk in his cell./ It comes to the woman sweeping the street/ with a birch broom, to the child/ whose mother has passed out from drink./…” The persona gives these examples, which are quite different than each other in order to prove that, in any simple moment happiness can arrive, even to the person who is in a bad situation like, “the child, whose mother passed out from drink”. As a conclusion, In the poem language is used in order to prove that happiness is a simple thing and people can be happy in any moment. In the poem, the structure is simple, which reflects the message of the poem, happiness is a simple thing, and people can be happy in any moment. In the second stanza of the poem, the persona asked a question, “ And how can you not forgive?” The question which is asked by the persona makes the reader feel like the persona is having a conversation with him, and she wants to make the reader feel better with having a simple talk. Also in the fourth stanza she listed the situations that happiness can arrive. The fourth stanza starts with following lines, “It comes to the monk in his cell./ It comes to the woman sweeping the street with a birch broom, to the child whose mother has passed out from drink,” and continues like that. The language used in these lines exactly creates an impression of a list, and that makes the message simpler and more effective. Structure formed a feeling in this poem which emphasizes how happiness is a simple thing. In conclusion, Kenyon used language and structure to reveal the simplicity of the theme of happiness; also she conveys that, it can come in any moment to anyone. Symbol of the uncle, made the theme of happiness a tangible thing, and it showed how in fact happiness simple is. Also the basic language supports the central message by creating the feeling of having a chat with persona, and she explains how happiness simple is. In this poem, Kenyon’s style was being a friend to the reader; also she was trying to explain sooner or later everything is going to be all right and how happiness is a simple thing. Kenyon, Jane. "Poetry Magazine." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 May 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/28400>. |
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