Happiness By Raymond Carver Essay

The poem “Happiness” by Raymond Carver is written in short stanzas, a mixture of quatrains and tercets. Raymond Carver uses short lines without a particular poem pattern. He exposes a casual and peaceful tone. The tone enables the reader to understand the poem by creating imagery through the stanzas. It creates images of peacefulness and love. In addition to the tone and imagery, he also uses diction to show the source of his happiness.
The first stanza explains the writer’s approach towards the casual tone throughout the work. Carver says, “So early it’s still almost dark out. I’m near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought”, this line describes a normal morning of the poet, somehow a daily event, which he is living through each and every day. There is nothing special in his daily routine, no single aspect that can
be a notable one. Therefore, Carver is able to see the happiness in everything he does.
Additionally, the author represents the calmness feature with the following line: “They are so happy they aren’t saying anything, these boys. I think if they could, they would take each other’s arm.” No slight feeling of disturbance is shown by the boys while delivering newspapers. As for the setting of the poem, it is so calm and innocent: “They come on, slowly. The sky is taking on light, though the moon still hangs pale over the water.” The author’s tone of the poem creates its structural difference. Carver is violating the vision of the poem by changing the tone.

Particularly, the imagery in the poem is used to describe happiness.
The author is willing to show the sense of happiness in ordinary thing, which happen to everyone on a daily basis. Carver is enjoying his morning coffee, its smell and warmness, the beautiful view out of his window and the jolly newspaper boys. This specific scene shows how the normal things and some daily events, which are usually ignored, result into happiness. The poet narrates in a manner that the reader can visualize all the happenings in the mind – video and create an image in ones head.
Finally, he uses diction to show how happiness cannot be compared to anything else in the world. He states that “Such beauty that for a minute death and ambition, even love, doesn’t enter into this.” The strong diction is showing us the fact that happiness is beyond death, ambition and beauty. The author shows how he appreciates the minute events in his life that bring about happiness, as it is something that can come out of the ordinary things. Moreover, just a small thing can bring happiness, so it is worth to value every moment of life and enjoy
it.
The poem “Happiness” by Raymond Carver has a huge reality in its explanation of happiness. With the help of the structural elements and methods, the author is able to describe ordinary things as something of a great value. Carver teaches the reader to notice the smallest details in life, which, in turn, can bring the happiness.