Le Bonheur Dans La Richesse

Discussion Questions — Le Bonheur Dans La Richesse (attr. Sappho, French adaptation)

1. Close Reading / AQA AO2 | AP Close Reading: The poem opens with a bold assertion about gold's power to sharpen human ingenuity. What does this claim suggest about the relationship between desire, ambition, and intelligence — how does it set up the moral argument that follows?

1. Language & Symbol / AQA AO2 | IB Guiding Question: Gold is described as imperishable and even divinely gifted, whereas rot and rust threaten lesser things. How does the contrast between permanence and decay shape the poem's attitude toward wealth, and what does it imply about the nature of virtue by extension?

1. Tone & Voice / AP Close Reading | IB Guiding Question: The overall tone has been described as aphoristic and celebratory — almost like a wise saying above a doorway. How does this confident, epigrammatic voice affect the way the poem's moral message lands? Does it persuade, instruct, or do something else entirely?

1. Theme — Happiness & Virtue / AQA AO1 | AP Argumentation: The poem's central claim is that true happiness requires both wealth and nobility of character. How does the poet balance celebrating riches with cautioning against them? What does the use of the word souvent ("often") rather than an absolute tell us about the speaker's worldview?

1. Theme — Honour & Social Class / IB Guiding Question | AQA AO3: In Le Bonheur Dans La Richesse, noblesse refers not to aristocratic birth but to moral integrity. What does this redefinition of nobility suggest about how social worth and human dignity are measured — how might this reading have resonated with a 17th- or 18th-century French audience?

1. Historical & Biographical Context / AQA AO3 | AP Contextual Reading: This poem is a French adaptation of a classical Greek source rather than a direct translation. What might be lost or gained when a classical lyric is reimagined for an educated, courtly French readership centuries later? How might the cultural priorities of that later audience shape the poem's emphasis on wealth and virtue?

1. Authorial Intent / AP Argumentation | IB Guiding Question: Sappho is best known for intensely personal lyrics exploring love and longing. How does Le Bonheur Dans La Richesse — with its public, moral register — compare to that reputation? What might it suggest about the range of purposes lyric poetry was expected to serve in the ancient (and later, classical French) tradition?

1. Theme — Mortality & Memory / AQA AO1 | AP Close Reading: The second poem in this pairing, an epitaph, transforms a fisherman's humble tools into a lasting monument. How does placing this quiet, elegiac piece alongside the celebration of wealth create a moral contrast, what does that juxtaposition imply about what truly endures after a life is over?

1. Symbol & Social Class / AQA AO2 | IB Guiding Question: The fisherman Pélagon's nets and oar are described as both tristes (sad) and markers of proud, honest labor. How does this tension between sorrow and dignity reframe the first poem's argument about wealth? Can a life of honest poverty be read as its own form of noblesse?

1. Big Picture — Themes of Money & Happiness / AP Synthesis | IB Global Issue: Across both poems, the tension between material wealth and moral worth is never fully resolved. In what ways does Le Bonheur Dans La Richesse resist offering a simple answer about money and happiness — why might that ambiguity make it more, rather than less, compelling as a piece of moral poetry?