The Character of a Happy life by Sir Henry Wonton:

How happy is he born and taught

That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are;

Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the world by care
Of public fame or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise,

Nor vice; who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend;

—This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall:
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.

POETIC DEVICES:
METAPHOR
JUXTAPOSITION
ANAPHORA
ALLITERATION

Themes:
Independence (of through)
Freedom
Difficult of being happy/ needing happiness/ leading a happy life
Emancipationà the impulse of emancipation runs through the poet

General ideas

• - Happiness (fortune, joy, luck) is valued more than power

 • - The purpose of the poem is to explicate according to the poet the characteristics of a
happy person leading a happy life, it also is critical of fame, rules, oppressors, and
serving out of others will. But using these ideas explicates things that prevent
happiness due to morals and shows how happiness is prevented by society.

• - Poet has written from a privileged point of view → poetic speaker is

autobiographical and can be assumed to be the poet
→ little separation between reality and fiction
→ poem is a self help / instruction manual on how to be happy , indifferent to
everything, find virtue and peace→ idealistic view and glorified ideas
• - He distils the secrets of happiness (difficult)
• - Didactic → preaching → tone and message
• - Poets drive is for the manipulation and corruption his fellow politicians are
following
• - Stoicism → about what the poet is preaching, detachment from emotional thought
and investment
• - Speaker is autobiographical and the purpose is in modern day education and the
independence of thought → speaker promotes these moral ideas of an ideal and
perfect world from his point of view, from readers pov it is unrealistic → he is viewed
as idealistic, autobiographical, assertive (anaphora → like teacher teaching morals)
• - The speaker is unsatisfied with his own life, so he is glorifying a simple life
• - Poet is critical of:
• → Opposite of what he is not
→ Those that have passively accepted god vs the ones who fear god (religion) →
Ambition , court , manipulation and corruption, god fearers
• - It is ironic to have the ambition to have no ambition, to envy those who envy
nothing

Anaphora:
- ‘who’ ‘whose’ contrasts between his with an unhappy person. Uses an implied
unhappy person as a default target
- Accepts deathàmoral limitations
- Promotes happiness by creating a view that a peasant (unhappy man) has the
best life- not bound by anything
- Assertive toneà to persuade
Alliteration:
- ‘How happy is he’ life has tired the speaker, when he is speaking about people being
happy, he is tired.
- ‘Public frame or private breath’ alliteration à binary (the two ideas are incompatible;
both make you dependent on something else [fame and gossip}- you should be self-
reliant in both spheres of your life)
- ‘Untied unto’ à harsh alliterative dental sound (showcases how bad it would be if
you were bound by societal construct and the world)
‘Whose state can neither flatterers feed nor ruin oppressors great’
- ‘state’ ideal man’s personality
- ‘Flatterer’s feed’ gentle f alliteration à being complimented is pleasant (ego won’t
become large it doesn’t affect him-it won’t cause his downfall)
- ‘Ruin make oppressors great’ binary à repetitive structure starts developing (absurd
binary- oppressors can’t cause great ruin to such a person)
Binary Structure of the Poem:
- Subtle contrast is a separation of idea
- Rhyme scheme- ABAB
- Nobleman vs peasants’ ideals
- Peasant is protected by his ideas-honest thought
- Writer must bend his ideals because of court politics
- Peasant is content à to be noblemen, you must be ambitious
- Peasant life is being romanticized
- Peasant does not have political power, but writer must be Machiavellian (cunning,
scheming)
- Has a dual nature
- Principle vs manipulation
- Anarchy vs society
- Contentment vs ambition
- Yearning: ambition to have no ambition
Noble means and peasants’ idea (the peasant is protected by his ideals, but they must be bent
for him to use this in court. The peasant does not have any political power, the noblemen
must manipulate their way. They represent two parts of the speaker mind. Principle in
manipulation + anarchy in society.
- Quality of human nature
- Contentment and ambition
- Anarchy to society
- Principle and manipulation
First 3 peasant, and last three speaker
It is a romanticized (private breath, rumours freed, flatterers freed, ruin make oppressors
great, deepest wounds are given by praise) because this is part of political discourse about the
ways manipulation and corruption earns you fame.

Glorifying a simple life (stoicism)

- Independence
- Freedom
- Difficulty of leading a happy life
Binaries: gender (male/female)
- Public private àmanipulation
- State good à laws
- Ruin great à internal defence against oppression
- Nothing all àmaterialism
Through the use of repetitive structure and the individual lines parallelism ‘state…good’ is
made a binary. It is a criticism of the way the state operate.
The impulse of emancipation runs through the poem.
- The binaries are used to give more power to the criticism in the given stanza
The most significant lines of the poem
- ‘taught…thought’ teaching himself to acquire a skill adds to semantic field- will help
him in battle.
- ‘death…breath’ juxtaposition of life and death, being linked by rhyme scheme shows
how speaker envies the idealistic happy belief. This situation is to reject gossip and
highlighting the difficulty of doing the same thing
Speaker:
- Autobiographical and purpose is in modern day education
- Speaker shows ideal world from his POV. But it is unrealistic to the readers
 - Showing peasant life to be the perfect life.
- Not how the readers and rest of the people view it^
- He is an idealistic, assertive and autobiographical
- Unsatisfied with his own life so glorifies peasant life
Poet:
- The poet criticises people who become something else due to another person (change
in personality)
- People who criticise are you real g’s and people who don’t are not
- Those that have passively accepted god and those who fear him
- He envies those who envy nothing
Religion:
- The speaker emphasises how one must be religious with good intentions to lead a
happy and moral life. Some may pray to god when they need something (materialistic
ways) to get gifts (quotes). The speaker disapproves of this and tells to seek his grace
or be healed by the idea of being connected with him. Also, one must not only pray in
his darkest times but both late and early in his life. Most people forget to pray or see a
religious play. Thus, the speaker promotes the practice religion, but god is not the
main goal it is on the way to achieve a happy life. (commentary on church of
England)
Lexical field of freedom:
- Armour, untied, freed, will, honest, masters, public, and private
- The word diction employed by the poet is notably interlinked to an abstract field of
freedom, the lyrical voice sets the idea apart from other stereotypical of freedom. A
grim and purposeful life is envied and connected to freedom, the poet shows freedom
as a lack of power, despite the recurring belief that freedom comes with agency.
Moreover, the word choice creates an idea of slavery, due to the critical and
submissive and forced word choice of masters, oppressors and prepared for death
(quotes) the great desire is unable to conceal the deepest wounds of his history of
slavery and it seeps through. Perfect structure is broken by his privilege. The power of
his memory breaks down the construct of the perfect character.
- Troche adds emphasis to lord which contributes to the criticism of politics and
religion. Final line is in perfect iambic tetrameter (made more memorable, melodic,
and sing-song likeà summary of the poem [completion])
Form:
- The poem is written in six quatrains (four line stanzas)
- The rhyme scheme and bouncy sort of meter make the poem more memorable and
feel energetic (speaks to the nature of it being a ‘manual’ full of life advice)
Meter:
- The poem is written in iambic tetrameter (da-DUM rhythm)
- Line 23 has a change of meter to a trochee (the opposite of an iambàDUM-da
rhythm) this shows what a happy man should care about- independence, self-respect.
- This is also done because out last line is perfect Iambic tetrameter that makes the end
more rememberable
Rhyme Scheme
- ABAB
- This makes it more lively and suits the poem as it is trying to put forward sensible
advice
- It also helps to show people are indulged and tempted in gossip and/or backstabbing
Literary context:
- Lord Henry Wotton is an English poet, diplomat, and courtier
 - He served in the court of James I of England which shows his indirect critique of
backstabbing of courtiers
Historical context:
- This was written in an era of transition when Elizabeth I the virgin queen was on the
throne
- During there was a split in the Catholic church and church of England
- The queen had also fought multiple victories against Spain, creating a new sense of
English national identity a midst of chaos.
- Wotton got into James I’s good graces as he informed James of the plot to poison him
(hence, he was knighted for his service)
- The new kings court was intellectual and superstitious. They were great patrons of
arts and sciences, so they allowed poets such as Wotton to flourish.