Thomas Hardy’s poetry is known for its philosophical pessimism and its autobiographical nature. Because Hardy struggled with faith and the possibility of God in his life, he struggled with the same in poetry. However, due to his mental battle with life’s meaning, he was able to express his doubts and become a critically acclaimed poet. With a total of nine hundred and forty-seven poems, Hardy is one prolific poets of the twentieth century. In 1898, Hardy wrote the three-stanza iambic pentameter poem “Hap”, articulating his pessimistic view of the universe. 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. Based off
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He wants the despair in his life to have been calculated and intended by a higher purpose. He believes that that would be easier to deal with than discovering his life’s insignificance and futility. Essentially, he claims that he would be somewhat comforted, just to know that his misery had meaning. Scholar Marjorie Levinson discusses the meaning of Hardy’s poem, saying that it is “full of intentions unrelated to an overarching plan, unrelated to an original or originating consciousness, calls value itself into question. That is as radical a challenge as one can make in and to the cultures of modernity” (Levinson 555). On the other hand, Scholar Edward Neill states that “an estimate of Hardy’s poetry is more securely founded on the sense of an ideological drama taking place, the will to comply with what seems to be expected of the Victorian artist crossed by the will to resist, in a continuous display of subversive intentions and timid retreats” (Neill 75-6). Neill continues to talk about how Hardy’s perception takes a major role in the tone of his poem. He says that it “entails intellectual integrity, underwritten by an emphasis on perceptions, which cannot, as it were, lie. Hence Hardy’s becomes the poetry of perception” (Neill 79). In “Hap”, Hardy’s view of the intentions of God sets the pessimistic tone of the poem, forcing the reader to empathize with his lack of faith and spiritual
He wants the despair in his life to have been calculated and intended by a higher purpose. He believes that that would be easier to deal with than discovering his life’s insignificance and futility. Essentially, he claims that he would be somewhat comforted, just to know that his misery had meaning. Scholar Marjorie Levinson discusses the meaning of Hardy’s poem, saying that it is “full of intentions unrelated to an overarching plan, unrelated to an original or originating consciousness, calls value itself into question. That is as radical a challenge as one can make in and to the cultures of modernity” (Levinson 555). On the other hand, Scholar Edward Neill states that “an estimate of Hardy’s poetry is more securely founded on the sense of an ideological drama taking place, the will to comply with what seems to be expected of the Victorian artist crossed by the will to resist, in a continuous display of subversive intentions and timid retreats” (Neill 75-6). Neill continues to talk about how Hardy’s perception takes a major role in the tone of his poem. He says that it “entails intellectual integrity, underwritten by an emphasis on perceptions, which cannot, as it were, lie. Hence Hardy’s becomes the poetry of perception” (Neill 79). In “Hap”, Hardy’s view of the intentions of God sets the pessimistic tone of the poem, forcing the reader to empathize with his lack of faith and spiritual