Catharine Garbo
Mr. Salsich
8 English
28 April 2009


Happiness behind its cover:An essay about the theme of a poem and how it relates to my life.

What is happiness to you? Happiness to me is something that comes and goes, but happiness means a whole different thing to Jane Kenyon, in her poem “Happiness”. She talks about what happiness is behind its cover, and what it really is. We have all experienced happiness sometime, sometimes when we lest expect it.


(TS)“There’s just no accounting for happiness,” is what Jane Kenyon (n) says in her poem “Happiness”. (Loose sentence) (SD) The theme (n) is simply stated in her first line of (prep) this poem. (CM) You can’t predict happiness, you don’t know when it will suddenly come to you or why. (CM) Anybody (n) can find it, “it comes to (prep) the woman sweeping the street” or it can sneak up on you like a crazy friend (n), or just be there when you least expect it. (SD) When Kenyon was writing this she noticed that happiness can come to anybody. (CM) For instance in the fourth stanza of her poem, (dep. Clause) she states all the people happiness has helped during their hard times. (CM) She could also be trying to get across to all of the readers that happiness comes at different times. (Dep. Clause) (SD) Happiness can go to anyone, including “the dog chewing a sock”. (CM) This quote relates to my life when I watch my dog (n), Pearl, sneak up and steal a dirty sock that has been thrown on the ground after a long day. (CM) When I see Pearl (n) chewing joyfully (adv) on (prep) this sock you can see the happiness in her eyes, as she shreds the pieces of cotton rapidly (adv) apart, and scatters them along the floor. (Periodic sentence) (CS) This poem simply relates happiness to my life.Happiness is in my life, and it wouldn’t be the same if happiness never existed.


After reading this poem, you look at happiness a different way. Even though it comes and goes, it’s still the thing that can get me up on a nasty morning, or just lift me up after a hard day. Like Jane Kenyon said, “There’s just no accounting for happiness.”


Self-Assessment

1.What part of writing this paper took the most time?
My body Paragraph.
2. What is the difference between the two drafts?
I made sure to look back very carefully for mistakes in the second daft.
3. What do you think the best part of your paper is?
My body paragraph.
4. What part of this paper could be improved?
My concluding paragraph.