THOMAS HARDY “HAP”

Thomas hardy was one of the significant poets and additionally can be considered
as one of the most renowned novelists and poets. He wrote some of the well-known poems
of the Victorian period such as "The Darkling Thrush", "Ah, Are You Digging on My
Grave?", and the poem this essay will analyse “HAP”. Hap" was written by Hardy in 1866,
and in 1898, “Wessex Poems and Other Verses”, his first book of poetry which contained
the poem. This essay will study Thomas Hardy’ poem “HAP” in terms of its historical
background, themes, and structure.
The poem "Hap" that was first published in 1866, captures the social and historical
atmosphere of the Victorian age when Hardy lived. In the poem, it can be observed that it
is not ignore the foremost issues of the Victorian era such as Industrial Revolution,
Religious debates, and Pessimism. The depressed speaker of the poem claims that, in some
ways, even a wicked god would be preferable to unexpected tragedy which is support the
used theme, chance and suffering, in the poem.
Hardy's poem "Hap", which has three stanzas and fourteen lines, is an example of
an Altered Sonnet. The poem is a sonnet, written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme
of the poem is ABAB CDCD EFEFFE. In the poem, enjambments also can be seen in the
lines of 1and 11. On the other hand, there is caesura throughout the poem excluding the
lines of 1 and 11.
Lastly, In the poem there are other literary devices that includes alliteration,
assonance, metaphor, and personification. The alliteration in the poem is seen in the lines
of “Had but a three second breath" and "That night she passed solitary there." In addition
to that, assonance is in the lines of "Hap what may to-night" and "sour company." Hardy
uses metaphor in the poem’s title “HAP”. Finally, the personification that Hardy use in the
poem is By indicating that Triton, the sea deity from mythology, may blow a horn in the
line "Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn," Hardy humanizes Triton.