LEONARD’S VIEW OF HAPPINESS

 

                LEONARD’S VIEW OF HAPPINESS

            ‘Happiness’ by the American poet Priscilla Leonard (pseudonym for Emily P. Bissell) , (1861-1948) is included in the “Best Loved Poems “of the world.

            It is an inspirational poem having lots of themes, one of which is that happiness is both hard and easy to achieve.

            The poem also suggests that one should be thankful for what one has or how much one has achieved.

            Moreover, happiness has many different forms for many different seekers.

            This is a three-stanza poem. The first one begins with the lines : Happiness is like a crystal, fair and exquisite and clear, broken in a million pieces, shattered, scattered far and near.

            The starting lines of the second stanza are: You may find a bit of beauty, or an honest share of wealth, while another just beside you , gathers honour, love or health.

             The third and final  stanza tells the readers:

           

            Yet the wise as on they journey  

             Treasure every fragment clear,

             Fit them as they may together.

             Imaging the shattered sphere,

            Learning ever to be thankful,

            Though their share of it is small;

            For it has so many pieces

             No one finds them all.                

 

            Finally, the poet emphatically says that nobody in this world can achieve perfect happiness because it has so many pieces shattered, scattered far and near.

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G.R.Kanwal

30 June 2025