Summary Of Happiness By Jane Kenyon

In the poem Happiness by Jane Kenyon, the main idea is that happiness comes in many forms to our lives and it is very difficult to see it, rather we need to experience it. The poet also conveys to treasure the happiness in our lives, even if it occurs in its miniature forms. Happiness is an emotion that is unique to an individual, rather than an event. Additionally, the poet tries to point out that happiness comes to everyone and everything – even though we are not aware of it. The poet effectively utilizes the parable of return of the prodigal son to explain what happiness is, then suddenly takes a turn to claim “happiness is the uncle that you never knew about.” Now the scene is set with the uncle arriving in his plane and to find you “asleep

midafternoon during the unmerciful hours of your despair.” After this, the poem becomes more ubiquitous, when happiness comes to the “monk in his cell, to the woman sweeping the street, to the child whose mother had passed out from drink, to the lover, to the dog chewing a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots in the night”– which are examples that it comes to anyone unexpectedly. Then, it concludes with a striking visual image of the rain falling on the open sea, that is actually personifying the rain; and lastly, happiness arrives to the non-living object - the wine glass by the weariness of holding wine.
Next, The Mower by Philip Larkin is specifies a message which is that we should be kind to everyone while there is still time. This could be interpreted as a reference to life, as we don’t know when people will die and so that we should be kind to them. Here, in the poem, the poet accidently killed a hedgehog by his mower, that he had found to be jammed up against the blades. So, at first the poet is filled up with guilt, but then he felt sympathetic. Another message that the poet conveys is ‘karma’, where the sum of the actions of an individual in the present life can affect the fate during their next lives. So, good deeds contributes to happiness and bad deeds contributes to pain and sufferings.