A poem by Thomas Hardy
(Note: the literal meaning of 'Hap' is Luck)
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 it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in 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.
In his poem “Hap” Thomas Hardy writes about chance and the random nature of life.
In the first stanza he writes of his desire that “some vengeful god would call to [him]/ From up the sky and laugh.” He wishes that the god would admit to taking joy from the suffering of the lowly mortal. Why does Hardy ask for such a sadistic, vengeful god? Hardy gives his answer in the second stanza of the poem. He writes that the existence of such a god would allow him to bear his sufferings with a feeling of righteous anger, or “ire unmerited.” The existence of such a god would be useful to Hardy because he could direct all his anger created by suffering at one being. It would also ease his suffering to know that “ a powerfuller than [himself]/ had willed and meted me the tears [he] shed.” In other words, Hardy’s suffering would be reduced if only he knew that some force greater than he had caused the suffering he experiences. In the third stanza Hardy laments about the fact that the existence of such a convenient, vengeful god is “not so.” After he states that no malevolent god exists to deal out his sorrows, he asks, “How arrives it joy lies slain,/ and why unblooms the best hope ever sown?” Why should he not be happy if there is no malevolent force preventing it? Why should all his hopes be ruined? Hardy answers his own questions by writing that “Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,/ and dicing time for gladness casts a moan.” In other words, Hardy is saying that only random chance is responsible for his suffering. In the last two lines of his poem he writes about the fact that random chance has indifferently given him as many blessings as sufferings in his life.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Hap
at 2:14 AM
Labels: Collection
6 comments:
a poets honest expression of pain has deeper vision and wisdom than all the religious and ideological system creators of the world.
perhaps that is what the "human condition" is (or what camus would call the absurd)- so utterly fraught with ambiguities, so burdened with thought systems, so unresolvable through true reson, yet possessing the capacity to suffer and feel joy.
Hmm...I would rather interpret the "human condition" as a relentless pursuit of meaning, of an explanation for all that happens, not giving up or getting discouraged by the fact that none of the theories till now have been able to do that :-).
I do not agree with the first line of your comment...i think that he is propounding his theory just as the religious leaders propounded theirs :-)
it comes across more as an untheory than a theory. he wishes there were some laws governing the universe, which also took into account human emotions, but randomness and chance are all that seem to be in operation. This is a lot more genuine than asserting the existence of a mystical creator, and even going further to lay out his dictates.
i dont see the "human condition" as being as positive as you see it. it also takes into account pain, and suffering, and often having to cope with meaninglessness (sudden death of a loved one). it does involve a constant quest for meaning, i agree, but that meaning is ever elusive, even to the last moment (which is why even profound thinkers like russell end up as agnostics). and even while we have this partial vision, we still have to navigate life (like a ship at sea which isnt sure where it is to go).
I liked the expression, "it comes across more as an untheory than a theory." Nice way of putting it.
And I think all those smiling faces that I put in my last comment were why what I wrote appeared 'positive' ...lol...but I was saying the same thing as you :-).
I think all religions and in fact, not only religions, but even the political ideologies have evolved out of a constant struggle to make sense out of life. For example, when people saw poverty all around, they asked themselves why that was so? And, why them? They had to give themselves some answer. Some rationalized it by inventing a vengeful god, or some misdeeds of the last birth for which they were being punished now, or many other such consolations. Such delusional theories were necessary to 'BEAR' their misery. It's the same as consoling someone by saying that even God needs good people and so calls them up sooner. If you don't tell them that, what else can you say? Nothing!
That is how religion soothes the pain of the people and, as Karl Marx said, becomes 'the opiate of the masses'.
Marx rejected this solution to the misery he saw. He propounded another- a society in which there will be no misery at all- all are equal.
So, that became the new dream for many generations. Again, it gave them a meaning, a higher goal to live or die for.
And then, you see that even that fails.
Meaning is elusive. But when has that discouraged us? The quest continues with the hope that Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi :-)
Many would actually accuse Hardy of pessimism for suggesting that it's all a chance game, that your role is quite limited in your own life story and that even the unfair will happen to you. Saying that is like breaking a beautiful dream, that we desperately want to believe to be true.
very good rebuttal :).
i would say that the "human condition" is all that encompasses the mind of an existant self aware emotional human.
but i cant but help admire a poet who says it as it is, which lays bare the strange absurdity of human existence. not everything can be judged through the lens of pragmatism (judging everything by its effects), and wisdom for me (and also good poetry), is aligned with Truth. A philosophy/thought system/vision which fails to aknowledge the tragedy of existence, and its mind numbing complexity, doesnt come close to being profound. great knowledge also comes when someone chooses to probe deep and far, casting away the comfort of orderly thought systems, fully aware of the fact that the outset of the quest that the universe may not yield answers favorable to humans (jung, existentialism, science, linguistics, etc etc).
i sympathize with religion like you do, and believe it brings many good things to us (hope even to the direst sufferer, meaning, the conception of "good" and "evil"), though like you, i dont believe in its objective existence. Perhaps it can be likened to a self help book, which seeks to generate an impression of simplicity and order, and leaves you feeling good.
Thanks for the compliment, and you know what...you used the analogy of self-help books for religion....and,once upon a time,I had promised myself to never pick up a self-help book again because I feared I was getting addicted to them...."opium of the masses"....:-)
I later wrote an article about that phase...it's available on my blog.
http://themindandthekeys.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-antidote-to-motivational-crap.html
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