Cheerfulness Taught By Reason, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Summary & Analysis

"Cheerfulness Taught By Reason" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a sonnet that explores the themes of complaint, perspective, and the role of reason in cultivating a positive outlook. The poem presents a meditation on the human tendency to complain, counterbalanced by the idea that embracing a more optimistic perspective can lead to contentment and gratitude. Cheerfulness Taught By Reason by Elizabeth Barrett Browning I THINK we are too ready with complaint In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope Of yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faint To muse upon eternity's constraint Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope Must widen early, is it well to droop, For a few days consumed in loss and taint ? O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod To meet the flints ? At least it may be said ' Because th…