The Character of a Happy Life
How happy is he born and taughtThat 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 careOf public fame or private breath;
Who envies none that chance doth raise,Nor vice; who never understoodHow 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 prayMore of His grace than gifts to lend;And entertains the harmless dayWith a religious book or friend;
--This man is freed from servile bandsOf hope to rise or fear to fall:Lord of himself, though not of lands,And having nothing, yet hath all.
Words in this poem
- armour n.
- Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle. [OE. armure, fr. F. armure, OF. armeure, fr. L. armatura. See Armature.]
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Character of a Happy Life is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sir Henry Wotton, The Character of a Happy Life, in Poems (1568–1639), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-sir-henry-wotton/the-character-of-a-happy-life.html, id L16001.
Form and metre
The Character of a Happy Life is 24 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB taughtA · willB · thoughtA · skillB
- 2 -A-A are · deathA · care · breathA
- 3 ABABC-C- raiseA · understoodB · praiseA · goodB · freedC · retreat · feedC · great
- 4 ABAB prayA · lendB · dayA · friendB
- 5 ABAB bandsA · fallB · landsA · allB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How happy is he born and taught | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That serveth not another’s will; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Whose armour is his honest thought, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And simple truth his utmost skill! | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Whose passions not his masters are; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Whose soul is still prepared for death, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Untied unto the world by care | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Of public fame or private breath; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Who envies none that chance doth raise, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor vice; who never understood | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| How deepest wounds are given by praise; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Nor rules of state, but rules of good; | 8 | ········ |
| Who hath his life from rumours freed; | 8 | ······˘· |
| Whose conscience is his strong retreat; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Whose state can neither flatterers feed, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Nor ruin make oppressors great; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Who God doth late and early pray | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| More of His grace than gifts to lend; | 8 | ········ |
| And entertains the harmless day | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| With a religious book or friend; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| --This man is freed from servile bands | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of hope to rise or fear to fall: | 8 | ········ |
| Lord of himself, though not of lands, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And having nothing, yet hath all. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.