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Thomas Hardy Poems

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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…show more content…
Line 11, there is an alliteration of ´C´, “crass casualty” that creates a sharp angry yet satisfying tone. Personification is the device seen in this sonnet as it is seen at line 9,”joy lies slain” where joy is seen as a person being killed by an assassin, hence being slain. Line 12, time is personified as a gambler who throws a “moan” as he is throwing the dice in an attempt for it to land on happiness. The persona challenges god fiercely in an outraged tone, a sad tone is being detected in hardy’s witting because god is such a powerful being that rains down misfortunes on humans, so he targets his anger towards the deity. He is frustrated in the last stanza thus resulting in him regarding the occurrences in nature as merely chance. The audience feels his intensity and thus the mood of the poem is sad. Symbols in the poem are the sky which represents heaven high up above that holds a more powerful being than mankind. Tears represent the persona’s hurt that he is being the victim of a vengeful god. Sun and rain represent every occurrence in nature that is then deemed to be ruled by chance and not a supreme being, and the pilgrimage represents the journey of life. NEUTRAL TONES WE stood by a pond that winter day, And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, And a few leaves lay on the starving sod, --They had fallen from
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