Analysis of Seeking For Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



Seeking for happiness we must go slowly;
The road leads not down avenues of haste;
But often gently winds through by ways lowly,
Whose hidden pleasures are serene and chaste.
Seeking for happiness we must take heed
Of simple joys that are not found in speed.

Eager for noon-time's large effulgent splendour,
Too oft we miss the beauty of the dawn,
Which tiptoes by us, evanescent, tender,
Its pure delights unrecognised till gone.
Seeking for happiness we needs must care
For all the little things that make life fair.

Dreaming of future pleasures and achievements
We must not let to-day starve at our door;
Nor wait till after losses and bereavements
Before we count the riches in our store.
Seeking for happiness we must prize this-
Not what will be, or was, but that which is.

In simple pathways hand in hand with duty
(With faith and love, too, ever at her side),
May happiness be met in all her beauty
The while we search for her both far and wide.
Seeking for happiness we find the way
Doing the things we ought to do each day.


Scheme ABABCC DEDEDD FDFDXX AGAGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 10110011110 011111011 11010111110 1101010101 1011001111 1101111101 10111111 1111010101 111101010 1101111 1011001111 1101011111 10110100010 11111111101 111101001 01110100101 1011001111 1111111111 0101101110 1101110101 11001101010 0111101101 1011001101 1001111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,018
Words 189
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 205
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 15, 2023

57 sec read
173

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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