Narrative Poem Research - Happiness Epidemic

WIthout any warning, the disease
sweeps across the country
like a traveling circus.

People who were once blue,
who slouched from carrying
a bag of misery over one shoulder

are now clinically cheerful.
Symptoms include kind gestures,
a bouncy stride, a smile

bigger than a slice of canteloupe.
You pray that you will be infected,
hope a happy germ invades your body

and multiplies, spreading merriment
to all your major organs
like door-to-door Christmas carolers

until the virus finally reaches your heart:
that red house at the end of the block
where your deepest wishes reside,

where a dog howls behind a gate
every time that sorrow
pulls his hearse up the driveway.


Compare to the other narrative poems on the Internet, it's relatively short and easy to understand the meaning, more like a narrative poem for children.
There are couple rhymes, like consonance, which is in line 13 and 14, "and multiplies, spreading merriMENt/ to all your major orGANs" . There are meters with two syllables, which is in line 1, "Without any warning, the disease"; there are meters with three syllables, too, which is in line 13, "and multiplies, spreading merriment". The style of the poem is quite cheerful; the diction has made the tone and mood of the poem cheerful and happy. The metaphor is used in the whole poem. The narrator compares happiness to disease, once the person gets ill, the person's misery and blue will be cured and turn into happiness. Also, the imagery of sight well helps create a image of metaphor the narrator has used; for instance, in last six lines, "until the virus finally......pulls his hearse up the driveway", the narrator compares a person's heart to a house, where a dog howls behind a gate and pull the sorrow away. It's a very interesting and cheerful poem.