An Explication on "Hap"

Regina R. White
British Lit II

An Explication of Thomas Hardy’s Poem, “Hap”
Thomas Hardy’s English sonnet “Hap” expresses how human destiny is ruled by chance, and how the narrator of this poem is confused by the idea of chance. The narrator uses various poetic techniques such as sound devices and figurative language. Throughout this poem, Hardy shows readers the struggle between the unexplainable and the explainable world.
In the first stanza of the poem the narrator is struggling with something painful, all though it is not apparent what that struggle is:
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! (1-4)
The word vengeful in the first line means to seek revenge, and if god was trying to seek revenge on him, that would raise the question about who and what god is in this stanz...