The poem "Happiness" by Amy Lowell describes someones (most likely the authors) love affair with alcohol and describes true happiness as something that is always there, looming in front of us, just out of reach as we use the wrong methods to try and achieve nirvana; a state of pure happiness and contentment. Amy Lowell's description of happiness depicts how happiness is achieved by different people. "Happiness, to some, elation; Is, to others, mere stagnation." This describes happiness as a feeling of immense joy and pride, and says that it is a very simple, yet complex emotion, achievable by some people just by staying laying around and doing nothing; albeit these people are rather lazy. The poem seems to describe a perfect day, possibly what the author considered her perfect day "Days of passive somnolence ... Hours of empty quietness, No delight, and no distress." It describes a day spent in a sleepy state, in perfect silence, with nothing to distract you, almost cut off from the outside world. Amy Lowell uses a powerful metaphor to describe her happiness early in the second paragraph "Happiness to me is wine" The authors uses wine as a metaphor for her happiness. "Effervescent, superfine" She fact she describes the wine as "superfine", she is talking about a the delicate textures and flavours of the wine, and the "Effervescent" describes the happy and bubbly nature of the wine and, more significantly, of her when she is drinking When Amy Lowell says "Full of tang and fiery pleasure" She is describing the slow burn of the alcohol as it would trickle down her throat, and "Far too hot to leave me leisure For a single thought beyond it" This starts to describe her addiction to alcohol, she loves alcohol more than anything and cannot think of anything else, it consumes her thoughts. What confirms for the reader that the author is an alcoholic is the line "Drunk! Forgetful! This the bond" She describes the bond that ties her to the alcohol, and as she uses the word forgetful, the reader must examine the possibility that there is a reason behind the drinking, shrouded behind a veil of alcohol and therefore she drinks to forget it, and becomes addicted to her "cure" The author uses the line "Means to give one's soul to gain" to great effect in the poem, the author is so entangled with her alcoholism that she has given her soul over to it, allowed it to consume her; her version of a deal with the devil. It is almost as if she has lost herself, sold herself, body and soul to alcohol. The lines " Even pain pricks to livelier living, then Wakes the nerves to laugh again" Describes the after-effect of her obsession, her hangover. She seems to describe how it would wake her up with the pain, only for her to drink again, in a sort of infinite loop of problems with no solution, no way out. She drinks, gets a hangover and then drinks again, to "Wakes the nerves to laugh again" This has become all she knows, her way of life. While the author overindulges in alcohol, she is aware that it is wrong "Rapture's self is three parts sorrow" Her drunk state "Rapture" is "three parts sorrow" because she is aware of what she is really doing and wants it to end but that one, fourth part keeps her tied to it and pulls her back for more and more