Joy requires one to be awake, Adjusting the heart's ambience to bright. Some prefer the dark, as is their right, On grounds of agony, and to forsake Not only bliss, but all that's blessed by light.

The speaker treats joy not as a passive feeling but as an active practice: to be joyful one must be “awake,” consciously tuning the “heart’s ambience” toward brightness. The metaphor implies vigilance—joy requires attention, self-knowledge, and continual adjustment. The second half complicates any simple moralizing by acknowledging that some people “prefer the dark,” and that this preference can be defended as a kind of right, rooted in lived “agony.” Yet the closing lines sharpen the cost of that choice: clinging to darkness means not merely losing pleasure but renouncing what is “blessed by light”—hope, gratitude, and the sustaining meanings that accompany joy.