Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HAPPINESS, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HAPPINESS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My neighbor johnsing can afford a lot of
Last Line: It with a pole, when seeing what it's done for him.
Subject(s): Happiness; Joy; Delight


MY neighbor Johnsing can afford a lot of things that I can not; yet I'm not
envious or bored, beneath my collar I'm not hot. My neighbor Johnsing has a roll

that's large enough to choke a steer; I contemplate him, and my soul is smiling

still, from ear to ear. For one thing is supremely true—as some one said,
in ringing tones—that happiness has naught to do with what a human being
owns. Old Masters hung upon the wall won't bring a nickel's worth of bliss. The

rich man, in his gilded hall, is always saying things like this: "The gladdest
time I ever spent, was when I lived in yonder shack, and had to husband every
cent, to buy suspenders for my back." I like to have enough to eat, I like to
have some clothes to wear, and caskets for my shapely feet, and gasoline to feed

the mare. I like to feel, in dismal times, upon the day that's wet and dank,
that I have half a dozen dimes in storage in the village bank. Let neighbor
Johnsing view his roll, through tears that make his vision dim; I wouldn't touch

it with a pole, when seeing what it's done for him.





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