English 1020 Mother and son

Happiness 

Launch Audio in a New Window

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.

Jane Kenyon, “Happiness” from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2005 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Source: Otherwise: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2005)

Class,

After reading "Happiness" by Jane Kenyon, please respond to the following prompts. Feel free to add other insights if you wish. After you are finished, please respond to at least one of your peers.

1. Kenyon uses a comparative device known as a simile to compare happiness with: "like a prodigal / who comes back to the dust at your feet / having squandered a fortune far away." She This image also utilizes personification with giving happiness a human quality.This is an intentional Biblical reference. Why do you think this comparison is effective and what was Kenyon perhaps trying to get across? Feel free to Google the reference if you are unsure of its biblical meaning.

2. Kenyon gives many descriptive examples of who/what happiness "comes" to--i.e. a monk in his cell, a sweeper, a dog, a clerk and so forth. This is simple but still powerful and even if complicated, yet uplifting imagery. Pick at least two images (you can choose from what is presented in the prompt or from others that are in the poem) and comment upon them.

3. According to Poetry Foundation, "Jane Kenyon was noted for verse that probed the inner psyche, particularly with regard to her own battle against the depression that lasted throughout much of her adult life" (par. 1). Is there evidence within the poem that might allude to the poet's personal struggles? Please cite specific lines.