Thomas Hardy Poems
HAP
IF but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love 's loss is my hate 's profiting!"
Then would I bear, and clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased, too, that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
--Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan....
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
HAP ANALYSIS
Firstly the word 'hap ' means 'that which happens by chance. ' The poem is a sonnet, although it is presented as three stanzas in that the traditional octave is split into two stanzas each of four lines and the sestet is a stanza on its own. The rhyme scheme is every other line rhymes. The poem reflects an atheist’s philosophy of life and is told from the point of view of a young man. The major themes in the poem are faith, and suffering. The speaker is experiencing a crisis of faith as the poet is trying to find answers to whether there is a vengeful god up in heaven or is it a world merely ruled by chance. Suffering is evident as the poet speaks of his pain and anger which is intensely felt from his struggle to find answers to his questions of this indifferent universe and as he imagines that there is supposedly a vengeful god who strives against mankind and feeds on human suffering; the poet is struggling to resolve an extremely difficult crisis with such god. Lines 1-4 (first stanza) of the poem the poet reasons the possibility of a vengeful god up in heaven who is looking down at earth, laughing at the pain and suffering mankind goes through. He wants to hold such a spiteful god accountable for supposed evil actions. He wants a response from such a god to whom man’s deepest anguish is his/heaven’s absolute
IF but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love 's loss is my hate 's profiting!"
Then would I bear, and clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased, too, that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
--Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan....
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
HAP ANALYSIS
Firstly the word 'hap ' means 'that which happens by chance. ' The poem is a sonnet, although it is presented as three stanzas in that the traditional octave is split into two stanzas each of four lines and the sestet is a stanza on its own. The rhyme scheme is every other line rhymes. The poem reflects an atheist’s philosophy of life and is told from the point of view of a young man. The major themes in the poem are faith, and suffering. The speaker is experiencing a crisis of faith as the poet is trying to find answers to whether there is a vengeful god up in heaven or is it a world merely ruled by chance. Suffering is evident as the poet speaks of his pain and anger which is intensely felt from his struggle to find answers to his questions of this indifferent universe and as he imagines that there is supposedly a vengeful god who strives against mankind and feeds on human suffering; the poet is struggling to resolve an extremely difficult crisis with such god. Lines 1-4 (first stanza) of the poem the poet reasons the possibility of a vengeful god up in heaven who is looking down at earth, laughing at the pain and suffering mankind goes through. He wants to hold such a spiteful god accountable for supposed evil actions. He wants a response from such a god to whom man’s deepest anguish is his/heaven’s absolute