Thomas Hardy's:
1. Hap
2. If but some vengeful god would call to me
3. From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
4. Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
5. That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"
6. Then would I bear, and clench myself, and die,
7. Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
8. Half-eased, too, that a Powerfuller than I
9. Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
10. But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
11. And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
12. --Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
13. And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan....
14. These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
15. Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
written in 1866
Explanation of lines 1-15:
1. 'Hap' means chance, from 'perhaps'.
2. Religion is the main theme in the poem, Hardy questions God's place in his life. He explores his loss of faith, which stems from the pain he has handled in his life. He imagines there is a God that enjoys our suffering, a God he refers to as 'vengeful'. (*notice how he has put God with a small 'g' why do you think he has done this?)
3. Presents imagery of God laughing and mocking. He goes on to present opposing ideas from line 3 where he imagines God is apparently saying "'Thou suffering thing.... (-to line 4)...know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, " as if God is taking pleasure in his pain.
4. Note the juxtaposition and binary feelings of "sorrow" and "ecstasy", from one extreme emotion to another.
5. In a way Hardy is looking for a reason as to why he feels pain and one explanation he imagines in this poem is a vengeful God. In this lines note the alliteration of "love's loss", as well as the whole line "That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!" The wrath and vengeance he imagines God is imbued with is emphasised in this sentence. ("love's loss" is a reference to Hardy's loss of his wife)
Stanza 2
Line 6. In this line Hardy is resolved to cope with and "bear" the pain, he would "clench [himself], and die"- it is a list of three and it is a line which sounds as if it is has come from the bible- as if he is consoling himself or bracing himself against the pain to come.
7. In this sentence he feels a righteous anger which he uses as a coping mechanism.
Stanza 2
Line 6. In this line Hardy is resolved to cope with and "bear" the pain, he would "clench [himself], and die"- it is a list of three and it is a line which sounds as if it is has come from the bible- as if he is consoling himself or bracing himself against the pain to come.
7. In this sentence he feels a righteous anger which he uses as a coping mechanism.
8. He is "[h]alf- eased" or comforted by the fact that there is a power who has given him those tears.
9. God has 'meted' or given him the tears to express his grief.
Stanza 3
Line 10. In this stanza he disregards all his previous exclamations and philosophies with the words "But not so."- he draws a line under all he has said and contradicts it all before expressing confusion. It is like the poem is the ramblings of a mind who has undergone a recent bereavement and is now in two minds about how to handle the grief. There is a personification of joy as it is killed or "slain", Hardy seems to be saying that if you understand joy as a person you can feel how much pain he is going through because joy is the binary emotion to pain.
11. In this line he poses a question and the image of the flower is presented as a representation of his hope, he questions: why take away his hope that was once restored? Why shrivel his hope? Why is his life like this and does God have a hand in his life?
12. The word "Casualty" in this sentence conjures up all the ideas of emergency, accidents, death etc. Also note the alliteration and personification of "Crass Casualty", which seems to emphasise the impending, overshadowing sense of doom he feels in his life as it obstructs the "sun and rain"- which are symbols of life.
13. "dicing time" conjures up "dice", gambling and probability of everything in life, especially the unpredictability of life, in that you can die at any moment.
Lines 14- 15. The sonnet ends the sentiment that; just as easy as he can feel joy Hardy can equally feel pain just as easily. Pain is pilgrimage a part of life, something that is universal, that everyone must go through, in religious terms it is like "pilgrimage" that everyone must go through. (note the contrasting emotions of "Blisses" and "pain" in the same sentence, could this be the "heaven" and "hell", the "heads" or "tails", the "good" and the "bad" that features in every life?)
Key words: God, luck, fate, chance, life + death.
9. God has 'meted' or given him the tears to express his grief.
Stanza 3
Line 10. In this stanza he disregards all his previous exclamations and philosophies with the words "But not so."- he draws a line under all he has said and contradicts it all before expressing confusion. It is like the poem is the ramblings of a mind who has undergone a recent bereavement and is now in two minds about how to handle the grief. There is a personification of joy as it is killed or "slain", Hardy seems to be saying that if you understand joy as a person you can feel how much pain he is going through because joy is the binary emotion to pain.
11. In this line he poses a question and the image of the flower is presented as a representation of his hope, he questions: why take away his hope that was once restored? Why shrivel his hope? Why is his life like this and does God have a hand in his life?
12. The word "Casualty" in this sentence conjures up all the ideas of emergency, accidents, death etc. Also note the alliteration and personification of "Crass Casualty", which seems to emphasise the impending, overshadowing sense of doom he feels in his life as it obstructs the "sun and rain"- which are symbols of life.
13. "dicing time" conjures up "dice", gambling and probability of everything in life, especially the unpredictability of life, in that you can die at any moment.
Lines 14- 15. The sonnet ends the sentiment that; just as easy as he can feel joy Hardy can equally feel pain just as easily. Pain is pilgrimage a part of life, something that is universal, that everyone must go through, in religious terms it is like "pilgrimage" that everyone must go through. (note the contrasting emotions of "Blisses" and "pain" in the same sentence, could this be the "heaven" and "hell", the "heads" or "tails", the "good" and the "bad" that features in every life?)
Key words: God, luck, fate, chance, life + death.
