Analysis of Hap

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



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.


Scheme ABAB CCCX DEDEDD
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011111 11010111001 1111011100 1111111100 111101101 1101111 11110111 1101010111 1111011111 011011101 11000010101 010111101 111111001 101110011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 679
Words 113
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 156
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
235

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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