Thomas Hardy - Hap

Hap means chance or luck in Old English, and in this poem Hardy seems to mock god (he does not capitalize this word in his poem). He has his god say, "Thou suffering thing, know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, that thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!" He is exagerating what God is to him, this higher being that takes joy in your suffering and profits from your "love's loss." He is eased by the thought that a "Powerfuller than I had willed and meted me the tears I shed." So someone more Powerful than him (powerful is capitalized, unlike god, meaning he believes in a more powerful being but not the vengeful god that Christians have given light to) has given him tears, and he is eased, but not satisfied by that.

But in the third stanza he says, "But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain. And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?... Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain." Where I think he would accept a higher more powerful being is guiding his life, but really he believes he is in control of his own destiny and decisions are his free will. And if this causes him sorrow, he will have "Blisses" in his own "pain," because he knew that he had the decision to do so.

I can feel for this poet and poem because I have questioned the wrath of God while reading the bible or going to church and hearing the sermons about fire and brimstone. But I always take the easy road and say whatever brings people their faith is what should be good enough for them, don't knock someone when they are not knocking you. I do not judge people based on their faith, because I do not want faith to be my basis for existence.