"Happiness" (by Carl Sandburg)
I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.
I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.
“The Happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.” (Dandelionquote.com) The poem “Happiness” by Carl Sandburg is about a man who tries to find the meaning of happiness from different people, different perspectives but finds the real meaning from a crowd of Hungarians with their women and children. Carl Sandburg reveal the real meaning of happiness,- which is not about money or success but about living in the moment-, in his poem “Happiness” by the help of free verse structure and symbolism.
“Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea.” (Yourdictionary.com) in the “Happiness” poem, Carl Sandburg uses lots of symbols to describe his findings about real meaning of happiness. In the first line, persona says that “he asked a professor to tell what happiness is”. “The professor” represents the intelligence and success; however he couldn’t answer the question. In the second line, persona says that “he asked a famous executive who boss the work of thousands of men to tell the meaning of happiness”. “The famous executive” represents money which also can’t answer the meaning of happiness. However, in the end persona sees a “crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.” These people don’t have money, intelligence or success but they’re the symbol of real meaning of happiness because they live in the moment. They make the best of they have. They share the time with people they care, have passion to live and feel the moment through all their soul. So, by the help of symbolism; readers understand that all successful and rich people are not happy but all people who know the way to live in the moment are happy.
The free verse structure plays an essential role to reveal the theme of happiness. Throughout the poem, persona is telling his experiences like story without being limited by the line lengths or the meter patterns or the rhyme. We see the path of changing person’s ideas and his findings to what happiness is. Sandburg says “I asked the professors…/ I went to famous executives…/ they gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them.” These lines are the great example of how the poem is written as a natural speech. And also it creates a sincere atmosphere which contributes to the message about real meaning of happiness by makes readers emphasize with persona and understand his feeling and experiences.
The poem “Happiness” by Carl Sandburg tells the happiness meaning by the help of symbolism which represents the ideas and findings in a creative way and by the help of free verse structure which creates sincere atmosphere and overall it gives the message that happiness is not about being rich or successful or having a good carrier but about having passion in life, feeling the moment and living in it via our soul.