In her depressingly optimistic poem, “Happiness,” written in free verse, Jane Kenyon comments on the unpredictability and ephemerality of the emotion of happiness. Though a morbidly depressing viewpoint on happiness, Kenyon optimistically implies that happiness will return at one point to relieve the speaker of his/her despair. Kenyon conveys the overall message that we should cherish the simple moments in life when happiness once again emerges through her personification of happiness which underlines its transience, bleak diction to assist a depressing tone, and her parallel structure which emphasizes the widespread simplicity in which many people receive happiness.

Kenyon personifies happiness to convey its unpredictability as it comes and goes, exasperatedly commenting, “there’s just no accounting for happiness.” She uses a biblical allusion to strengthen this declaration, stating that happiness “turns up like a prodigal,” implying its unexpected returns after its absence. The prodigal son is a man who squanders his inheritance in another country and then returns home to his father, destitute and seeking forgiveness. In this sense, happiness is shown as an entity which leaves but returns, just as the prodigal son had done. The son thinks that he will not be received with open arms but to his shock, the father forgives him, because he is joyous that he has returned to him. He throws an extravagant feast in honor of his returning son. This father is often seen as an embodiment of God, with his son as a human, conveying the message that God will accept even sinners with open arms and forgiveness, delineating his kindness and overwhelming happiness that his children will once again return to him.

With this in mind, the speaker then asks “and how can you not forgive?” personifying happiness as an entity capable to be forgiven and asserting that the overwhelming feeling of happiness trumps all other emotions and takes precedent as it eventually returns to the speaker, regardless of its seemingly unforgivable fleeting nature. This parallels Kenyon’s overall advice to cherish the happy moments in life. In the third stanza, happiness is personified as an unknown uncle, who visits you at the most common and randomness of times, when you are “asleep midafternoon.” This scene delineates happiness’ inevitability of returning and also its fluidity as it travels from place to place until it once again finds the speaker.

Kenyon’s poem utilizes many desperate and bleak diction which assists the tone which is partially depressing. The diction at the end of the third stanza displays happiness’ persistence to eventually find the speaker in his/her despair, delineating its inevitable return, even when all hope seems lost that it will, “during the unmerciful hours of your despair.”  The dreary words of “unmerciful” and “despair” paint a depressing picture of sadness, therefore conveying a tone of depression. The speaker can be inferred to be struggling with depression, much like Kenyon herself did, from the depressing tone derived from the bleak diction.

The ending also utilizes bleak scenes such as the “rain falling on the open sea” and “the wineglass, weary of holding wine,” to advance the desolate tone. The “rain falling on the open sea” is a futile effort as it simply just adds water to water, a metaphor for a person who is not making a difference in the world, and the “wineglass, weary of holding wine” is a metaphor for someone who is tired of his/her purpose in life. These are both depressing thoughts, but they are realistic thoughts, depicting the feelings of regular people living their regular, simple lives. These images simply convey the message that these people must rely on and appreciate the irregular visits of happiness.

Parallel structure is utilized throughout the poem, first in the second and third stanzas when the word “you” is constantly repeated. Kenyon uses the emphasis on “you” to actually mean the experiences of the speaker which can be applied to the rest of her audience who can identity with the speaker, meaning those who may also be suffering from depression and experience something similar. This is a form of empathy with the audience and Kenyon strives to make a connection through a shared experience. This also lets the audience know that they are not unique in these feelings.

There is a shift between the first employment and second employment of parallel structure, between the third and fourth stanza. The poem shifts from an empathetic effort to share an experience with the audience to giving hope to the audience. The second employment of parallelism is in the last stanza, with the repetition of “it comes to.” This conveys the message that happiness “comes” to a great variety of people, from the “monk in his cell” to “the woman sweeping the street with a birch broom” to even “the boulder in the perpetual shade of pine barrens.” Kenyon lists these to display the widespread touch of happiness to even those without much to be happy about as their existences are incredibly simple and real. This creates slight nuances of optimism amidst the downcast tone as Kenyon claims that all these simple people will inevitably experience happiness which gives hope to a depressed audience that they will once again feel the powerful effects of happiness.