Sample Response: This free-verse poem is metaphorical, comparing happiness to a germ that infects the people and spreads “merriment/to all your organs.” Before being infected with this “happy germ,” the people metaphorically carry a “bag of misery,” and sorrow arrives in a hearse. The poet also uses a couple of similes. For example, the “disease/sweeps across the country/like a traveling circus” and the “germ invades your body/ . . . like door-to-door Christmas carolers.” There are also a few instances of alliteration—“without…warning,” “hope a happy,” “Christmas carolers”—and assonance—“disease . . . sweeps.” This all combines to present a strong image of a happiness epidemic. The poet also uses both enjambment and end-stopped lines creating a fluent, almost conversational style.
