On “Inmate of Happiness” by Elizabeth Metzger
Click here to read the poem.
The poem “ Inmate of Happiness” by Elizabeth Metzger, centers around the idea that happiness is not always going to be guaranteed in someone’s life and that you may feel ashamed about losing yourself in the endless search for it. To begin, the first thing that grabs my attention is the title. I believe that Metzger is conveying the message that each one of us spends our entire lives aiming towards the goal of happiness because we have been conditioned to think that it should be what we strive for. However, if someone does not follow everyone else in the pursuit of happiness, then they can be seen as an outcast. Being an inmate means that you are a prisoner for doing something that is seen as a crime in the eyes of society. Saying that you are an “ Inmate of Happiness” can be interpreted as being held captive by our need to attain happiness instead of simply enjoying it like we are supposed to.
This leads me to think that the poem is written from the perspective of someone who is depressed and understands the poisonous process of chasing happiness. At the start of the poem it says, “Because you were born with your knees tied together under you…” (1). However, at the end of the poem it states, “ Because you were born to be happy ” (23). These two lines seem to declare the complete opposite of each other, one indicating that we are born not being able to reach happiness while the other expresses that we are all simply given it from the first minute that we are alive. I believe that the first line is painting the picture of what reality is like to someone who has lived through the worst that life could possible give to them while the other line is what they are supposed to believe in. At one point, they may have been naive enough to think that happiness is just given to everybody and slowly has come to realize that is not how it really is in life.
I also think that they are ashamed to admit that they are depressed and is afraid to tell people that they are unhappy. In our culture, being depressed is sometimes either seen as seeking attention or just having an off week. With these negative inconsiderate views on such a serious topic, more and more people have stopped asking for help and reaching out to others because they are scared of the backlash that might occur. Openly admitting to others that you are depressed may also lead to people treating you differently. Some may be cruel about it while others tip toe around your feelings because they pity you. This idea comes from the line, “ behind your teeth, a person of pity held down in thick liquid shame” (21). The image of someone smiling and seeming to be happy on the outside but behind that fake exterior is being eaten alive by the idea of no one knowing how they are truly feeling is prominent. They are locking away their real feelings like a prisoner which ties back to the title of the poem. Overall, I think that Metzger is sharing a hard message about life and how some people see the world. The fact is not everyone is going to find happiness in their lives and that can be a difficult to understand.
Abstract
The first time I read through the poem “Inmate of Happiness” by Elizabeth Metzger, I was utterly confused by the unconventional wording and strange connections that Metzger’s uses. I wanted to understand why the author chose to title her poem “Inmate of Happiness” because happiness is not something I immediately think of that would make you a prisoner, since it is a good emotion to feel. However, as I dug deeper into the poem, I realized that a person’s search for happiness can make them a prisoner in the search itself, because they can never truly find it. To better understand this poem, I carefully reread each line to see if there was any hidden meaning behind them. Some lines seemed to be fillers and were just there in order to connect parts of the poem together, but others I discovered had mind blowing meanings to them that I was able to use in my essay. As I thought about these important lines, I jotted down multiple notes on what I thought they meant and finally choose the ones I felt strongly about. Once I finally pulled all my ideas together and was able to see what this poem is all about I was shocked. The message is that the need for happiness has lead people to become prisoners in their own minds while chasing after it because they do not see that happiness is not always a guarantee. This poem is able to capture how many real people may be feeling and makes a reader think about how they interpret happiness is in their lives.
