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    The Title of Hap

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    Arunava Misra
    In Thomas Hardy's poem "Hap", the speaker ponders about how it would be more bearable to think that all of his misfortunes happen because a greater power has decided so, rather than the reality that his bad luck in life was a result of random chance and unfortunate coincidence. The poem is a 14 line sonnet composed in three stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker asks for a vengeful God to become known to him, one that takes pride in his suffering. In the second stanza, he claims that if such a God existed, he would have something to blame for pouring sufferings upon him. In the last stanza, he resolves that this God does not exist

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    The Title of Hap

    Uploaded by

    Arunava Misra
    61 views2 pages
    In Thomas Hardy's poem "Hap", the speaker ponders about how it would be more bearable to think that all of his misfortunes happen because a greater power has decided so, rather than the reality that his bad luck in life was a result of random chance and unfortunate coincidence. The poem is a 14 line sonnet composed in three stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker asks for a vengeful God to become known to him, one that takes pride in his suffering. In the second stanza, he claims that if such a God existed, he would have something to blame for pouring sufferings upon him. In the last stanza, he resolves that this God does not exist

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    The title of Hap

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    In Thomas Hardy's poem "Hap", the speaker ponders about how it would be more bearable to think that all of his misfortunes happen because a greater power has decided so, rather than the reality that his bad luck in life was a result of random chance and unfortunate coincidence. The poem is a 14 line sonnet composed in three stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker asks for a vengeful God to become known to him, one that takes pride in his suffering. In the second stanza, he claims that if such a God existed, he would have something to blame for pouring sufferings upon him. In the last stanza, he resolves that this God does not exist

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    61 views2 pages

    The Title of Hap

    Uploaded by

    Arunava Misra
    In Thomas Hardy's poem "Hap", the speaker ponders about how it would be more bearable to think that all of his misfortunes happen because a greater power has decided so, rather than the reality that his bad luck in life was a result of random chance and unfortunate coincidence. The poem is a 14 line sonnet composed in three stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker asks for a vengeful God to become known to him, one that takes pride in his suffering. In the second stanza, he claims that if such a God existed, he would have something to blame for pouring sufferings upon him. In the last stanza, he resolves that this God does not exist

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    of 2

    The title: “Hap” means that which happens by chance, luck, coincidence, or fortune.

    However, in
    this poem, “Hap” takes on the meaning of bad luck, accident, and misfortune.
    Thomas Hardy laments in ‘Hap’ that the misfortune he has endured and suffered throughout his
    life is not the result of some angry and capricious god: he could live with that, he says, since at
    least then he could attribute his bad luck to some higher power. 
    Hap means chance, and Hardy is searching for an explanation of the chances that bring humans
    such suffering in life.
    ‘Hap is one of Thomas Hardy’s earliest great poems, composed in the 1860s while he was still a
    young man in his twenties. Its theme is one that would return again and again in both Hardy’s
    poetry and in his fiction: the seeming randomness of the world, and the ways in which our
    fortunes (and our misfortunes) are a result of blind chance rather than some greater plan.
    In “Hap” the title gives an important clue about the poem’s content: the word hap means chance.
    The first two stanzas of the poem are just one sentence. It is important to note that the entire first
    stanza is an “if” clause. The speaker is not saying, “There is a vengeful god”; he is saying
    “If there were a vengeful god.” If there were a vengeful god that laughed at him, saying that his
    suffering provided pleasure for the vengeful god, then he would react as he describes in stanza 2.
    If there were a vengeful god, then he would bear the suffering stoically, halfway finding comfort
    in the fact that at least there was some reason for his pain, at least some god was directing what
    happened to him.
    Note the first short sentence of stanza 3: “But not so.” The monosyllabic words, each accented,
    emphasize the speaker’s conclusion. The “if” clause he proposes in stanza 1 is not so; in other
    words, there is no god, not even a vengeful one. This conclusion leads the speaker to ask why,
    then, he suffers in life—why are his hopes unfulfilled and his happiness ruined? The last four
    lines provide the answer to his question: it is simply chance. He personifies time, picturing Time
    rolling dice to see what will happen to him. It may be something good, or it may be something
    bad. Either way it’s simply a roll of the dice, a matter of “chance.”
     In Thomas Hardy's Hap, the speaker ponders about how it would be more bearable to think that
    all of his misfortunes happen because a greater power has decided so, than the reality (by his
    perspective) which is that his bad luck in life was a result of random chance and unfortunate
    coincidence.
    In Thomas Hardy’s poem “Hap” the main idea is about the sorrows of life and how they occur by
    random chance. • Hardy’s poem, a 14 line sonnet, is done in three stanzas. The first stanza Hardy
    ask for a vengeful God to become known to him; one that takes pride in Hardy’s suffering, “thy
    loss is my hate’s profiting (pg 1868 line 4).” • In the second stanza he claims that if such a God
    did exist Hardy would have something to be angry with for pouring all these sufferings upon
    him, and even more so because this force would be something much more powerful than he. • In
    the last stanza he resolves however; stating that this God he desires does not exist, and that his
    sorrows and sufferings happen by chance “Crass casualty obstruct the sun, and rain, /And dicing
    Time for gladness cast a moan…(pg 1869 11-12).” This random chance has bestowed upon him
    pain and hardship and is impervious to his suffering.

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