“Hap TPFASTT”

Title: “Hap”

        The title at first confused me, as I didn’t understand what “hap” stood for. I wasn’t sure if it was short for happy, or happenstance or happening. I believed it was just a nonsense word that related to the poem, and could relate to “happy” most likely, as a cut off way of seeing happiness not achieved. It could also be that the author just wanted to name the poem ‘hap’.

Paraphrase:

1st stanza: If only God, or one of the sort, would come tell me directly to my face whilst laughing at me, “All of your hardships and pain were of my doing, and I love doing it because I love watching you in pain!”

2nd stanza: Then I would take it in, and ultimately die, filled with unfathomable hatred and yet at slight peace that one above me had forced me through my pain and watched.

Lines 9-10: However, this has not happened, yet my happiness is destroyed and as a result, my best hope is also destroyed along with it.

Lines 11-12: Destruction and pain block my sight and all positivity, and passing time for personal enjoyment causes anxiety and forces time to fly faster.

Lines 13-14: Those in charge of my fate and life had put about pain and suffering within my life as often as happiness and love.

Figurative Devices:

“…thy sorrow is my ecstasy…” Line 3, metaphor

        This metaphor is saying that, for the god, the man’s sorrow is his high, his main happiness. It shows how he loves the sadness and true emotional distraught of this man, as if it is a drug for the god.

“…joy lies slain…” Line 9, personification

        To represent the feeling of the speaker in the poem, the poet uses the personification of joy to be killed and lying on the ground, which shows how destructive that must have felt to the speaker as death is devastating and the death of his happiness would be massive.

“-Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,” Line 11, personification

        Meaningless death and pain obstruct all that the speaker sees, it is all that is visible to them. They must deal with this constantly, or so we are led to believe, as with this personification of Crass Casualty obstructing view from the speaker.

-Rhyming (throughout poem)

        Stanza 1: me/ecstasy, thing/profiting

        Stanza 2: die/I, unmerited/shed

        Stanza 3: slain/rain/pain, sown/moan/strown

This rhyming gives a sort of beat to the poem, as it is a consistent A/B/A/B pattern throughout the poem until the last stanza, where it switches to an irregular beat with A/B/A/B/B/A. The irregular rhyming pattern that finishes the poem switches with the mood, and it ends the poem with a strange feel.

Attitude:

        The attitude of the speaker seems to be very cynical, angry and loathsome, while looking for answers. The poet seems to feel the same way, possibly a bit more sorrowful near the end of the poem, as the poet may have been speaking of his own strife and emotions.

Shifts:

        A shift in the tone occurs at the beginning of the third stanza, or line 9. The tone changes from angry to a quieter, more sorrowful tone.

Speaker:

        The speaker of the poem is someone who appears to have been through many hardships in life, and now is filled with seething rage as they want an explanation, or they want to be told why they have been through all of this pain. They do not seem to be pleased with life in the slightest, and their look on the whole ordeal is extremely cynical.

Title: “Hap”

        After defining the word ‘hap’, I have learned it means one’s luck. This is a reference to the “luck” of the speaker, of their bad luck in life and how they truly have not had a good experience overall. It fits the poem.

Theme:

        The theme of this poem appears to be that life is not the wonderful ride that so many people make it out to be, and it is filled with pain and anger and there are times in many lives where there is nothing to be happy about.