tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911233478688244922024-03-12T18:11:32.327-07:00Poetry Explained!Saadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03569533557678864993noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191123347868824492.post-57949322917219647992011-05-01T15:17:00.001-07:002011-05-01T16:07:55.327-07:00Hap - Thomas Hardy<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >*If you need to find something quickly, I suggest you hit CTRL + F and type in what you are looking for.*</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Hap(1)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >If but some vengeful god would call to me</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Then would I bear it, clench myself and die,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Steeled by the sense of the ire(2) unmerited;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Half eased in that a Powerfuller than I</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Had willed and meted(3) me the tears I shed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >-Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >These purblind Doomsters(4) had as readily strown</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >References:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >1 - Chance (aka Casualty @ line 11)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >2 - Anger</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >3 - Given</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >4 - Half-blind judges</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Author:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy">Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)</a> His works usually show the struggle between nature of man, inside and out, to shape human destiny. only through endurance, heroism or simple act of good can his characters overcome the adversity of unknown forces guiding them through life blindly.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Explanation:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >(My professor once said, "To truly enjoy what we have before us, we must not be gluttons. We must be mannered beings who adhere to the rules of society and take in, what we have before us, a morsel at a time.")</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >{Essentially what he meant was, "Don't try to understand the entire thing at first. Take it in by sentences, then stanzas and then you will have arrived at the entire idea. But for this poem, we need to look at it semi-collectively}</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Let us begin with the first 2 stanzas:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >1st STANZA</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >If but some vengeful god would call to me</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"</span></div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">2nd STANZA</div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; "><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Then would I bear it, clench myself and die,</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Steeled by the sense of the ire(2) unmerited;</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Half eased in that a Powerfuller than I</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Had willed and meted(3) me the tears I shed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left; ">So... what did we just read? A lot of mumbo jumbo at first glance. But I promise that there is a meaning here. </div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">Our friend Thomas wishes for an angry god to peer down at him and laugh. Because god is such a powerful being that rains down misfortunes on humans, Hardy would have someone to target his anger towards. Hardy would know that God made him suffer and so Hardy would be completely alright dying hating god.</div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">3rd Stanza</div><div style="text-align: left; "><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >-Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan...</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >These purblind Doomsters(4) had as readily strown</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.</span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left; ">Hardy finishes off this poem by hinting that his anger towards god would be unjustified. God does not bring forth only sadness, he also brings forth happiness and hope. If god gives us both, then why does Hardy need to be so depressed? Why can not he be extremely happy? Hardy's answer to his own philosophical question is: It is not some supreme being giving me happiness and then giving me sadness based on my actions. It is just random chance. It is random chance that I have been extremely happy and extremely depressed.</div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">Summary:</div><div style="text-align: left; ">Hardy wishes that god exist but sadly, he doesn't. Because all the good things and bad things that happen to us aren't based, created or assigned by a powerful being at all. It all depends on luck, chance or Hap. </div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">My Opinion:</div><div style="text-align: left; ">Not particularly my favorite poem aesthetically. The idea however is quite challenging. It reminds me of a young philosopher who is questioning why bad things happen to good people. Surely it is chance, but what Hardy is hinting towards is what if it is a bad thing only because we THINK it is a bad thing? It is almost circular. I do not know much about Hardy but what I do know is that he tried really hard to believe in god but in the end, he came out completely agnostic. This poem shows that struggle.</div><div style="text-align: left; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: left; ">I hope this helped!</div></div></div></span></div>Saadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03569533557678864993noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191123347868824492.post-50405927914012529582011-05-01T15:04:00.000-07:002011-05-01T15:15:31.752-07:00IntroductionHello.<br /><br />I am an English major, who is utterly baffled at the lack of explanations for classic poems, that is constructing this blog to help out my fellow companions.<br /><br />Poetry is a personal experience that is enjoyed by reading, as well as writing. As time has gone on, poetry has become far more complex and confounding. If you're anything like me, you're probably ripping your hair out trying to come up with a summary of what you just read. More frustrating, is that there are no websites available to really help any reader out! <br /><br />I will try my hardest to summarize and explain as many poems as I can. They might not be perfect, but I assure you that it will be far better than staring at a stanza that reads:<br /><br />"But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain<br />And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?<br />-Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,<br />And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan...<br />These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown<br />Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain."<br /><br />At the end of that poem (Hap by Thomas Hardy), I literally screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ?!"<br /><br />Next installment: <br /><br />Deciphering Hap by Thomas HardySaadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03569533557678864993noreply@blogger.com0