Happy the Man

Happy The Man by John Dryden John Dryden was born on 9 August in 1631 in a micro town in Northamptonshire, England, the eldest of 14 children, was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott c aloneed him Glorious John. 1 He was made Poet Laureate in 1668. As a humanistic public school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for twain sides of a given issue.This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as untold of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Drydens capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridg e.. Dryden died on April 30, 1700. Happy the Man is distill in its brevity in defining happiness. Its a short poem as compared to some(prenominal) of the larger writings of Glorious John, as Walter Scott c in alled him.Yet, it encompasses some eternal truths for personal happiness. What a fantastic nisus Not Heaven itself upon the past has powerhow many people spend valuable time worrying, regretting, fretting and regard they could change the past? The things youve done or failed to do already cant be changed, just now the next is yours to shape. John Dryden is trying to explain that his life has been lived and he is clever with what he has done all his life and evn if there are somethings in his past he cannot change and even if the future isnt so good he is still happy ,he did everything .Everything he has done he had enjoyed and he is still enjoying to this day . He is happy . I have had my hour ,means he has lived his life . counterfeit toward living each day to the full est and owning your disappointments and failures as much as your successes fill the unforgiving minute with cardinal seconds worth of distance run, for a life that wont leave you thinking only more or less the past, but rather always pushing on toward a brighter future. Notice how all of the end-of-couplet rhymes are end-stopped. Notice, in addition that, how all of the lines are end-stopped.Compare this to Thomas Middletons Verse of just a generation or so before. They make Middleton look like an Allen Ginsberg. Notice also, especially with Dryden, how you can extract any one of his couplets and they will more or less make a complete syntactical unit. One tender respire of hers to see me languish, Will more than pay the price of my past anguish The verse is regular iambic Pentameter with some variant, trochaic stolon feet. Dont be fooled by the following line, which some mightiness read as follows I can die with her, but not live without herHeres how Dryden means us to read it I can die with her, but not live without her When variant poetry, especially, from this period, always try to read with the meter. The last thing to notice about Drydens poem is that, scorn the tightly laced poetry, this poem is about sex, sex, sex. The meter itself Every single line ending is a feminine ending a sort of metrical double entendre. Every rhyme of the poem is a feminine rhyme (otherwise known as a multiple rhyme) en-deavor/leave her please us/ impound us. It is chalk full of pornographic double-entendres.Dont be fooled by the straight-laced formality of the poetry from this period. rough of the most depraved, erotic and sexual poetry ever written comes from this period. Dryden use of tone in the first stanza tricks the reader into believing that the essence of the poem is about his love for his girlfriend or maybe his wife but it is much deeper than that. The last line of that stanza goes into what is to come of the nature of the poem. Furthermore the sec ond stanza when considering the word customs further conveys the real theme.So whats the theme or the subject. line 7 Beware, O cruel fair how you smiling on me. The occasion in stanza one begins with the attraction he has with this woman then in stanza devil it develops into the moment he has with this woman. This is noted by the use of line1,2,3 Love has in store for me one happy minute, Then no day void of bliss, or pleasure leaving, Ages shall slide by without perceiving. One Happy Moment by John Dryden because it exemplify the emotions felt by the loudspeaker system, yet at the same time it views and feelings on the . Their situations and settings were that he was losing their lovers and feeling the agony of the moment. In both poems the speaker is hag-ridden at the prospect I can die with her, but not live without her. (Dryden, Line 4)The speaker then comes to the conclusion that the only way to avoid the issue is a solution unfavored by all I cannot live with you-it w ould be life. . . , I could not die-with you. . . (Dickinson, Lines 1-2, 13) In Dickinsons case it is necessary, in Drydens case it is the only choice left.