Analysis of Hardy’s “Hap”

Paper 1 Assignment: Analysis of Hardy’s “Hap”
Write a 2 to 3-page paper exploring the meaning of Hardy’s poem “Hap.” Use other Hardy’s poems that I have assigned to support your points. “The Darkling Thrush” would be a good one!
Is Hardy suggesting that we live in a godless random universe? Or is this just the way the speaker of the poem feels?
The paper should use an outline that approximates the following one.
Title. Your title must be relevant to your paper. “Paper 1” is not a title. “Hardy” is not a title.
“Hope and Experience in Thomas Hardy’s “Hap” is a title.
We name the work we are working on—and we name what we are exploring.
Paragraph 1. INTRODUCTION
What is the critical problem? What are we trying to find out? What is the plan of the paper—what is going to happen?
EXAMPLE:
In this paper, we are trying to show how Hardy tries to work out the meaning of the universe by looking at the speaker’s need for reason and the universe’s failure to deliver any. We will comparing “Hap” with “The Darkling Thrush,” determining if there is any change in Hardy’s attitude over the years.”
Or . . . whatever you see.
Start with a line from poem or a fact or a strong statement. Don’t start with a general assessment of Hardy’s career: “Hardy was a great writer who . . .” Don’t insult readers with what they already know!
______________
One of the best ways to write about a poem is to suggest the tension in the poem. Tension can be defined as twin and contrary impulses, mandates, or tasks that must be serviced.
Examples of tensions in “Hap”:
The speaker wants a comprehensible universe but the universe isn’t that and seems hell-bent to defeat his purpose.
The speaker tries to come up with ways—metaphors—to help him understand (the gambling metaphor), but metaphors—language in general, maybe—doesn’t help.
In the last line, the speaker uses the word “pilgrimage”—a word with religious overtones—suggesting that life is a journey with significance with at its end or in the process.
Paragraph 2
Quote a line or passage that exemplifies the tension that you introduced in your introduction. Demonstrate how the speaker—or the poem—is trying to serve two masters. That is the drama! Where’s the drama?
That is the business of this analysis. Put the line in context of the rest of the poem. How is that line defining, changing, or enhancing what the poem is doing? We are always putting our quotation in context! We don’t just quote a line—we show how it changes the whole drama or system of the poem—we show its function in the argument of the poem. In may be only a psychological argument—or delivering an experience, but poems are presenting us some thing to deal with.
There is NEVER a MESSAGE—some tight little truth. If a poem can be reduced to a coded message, why write it?

Paragraph 3
Do another line—showing how it supports or enhances the line you suggest talked about.
Paragraph 4
Bring in another poem. Show how this poem also is working out similar tensions as the first. Do a comparison by focusing on a couple of lines.
Paragraph 5 CONCLUSION
Restate the drama! What was the tension? Is the tension ever resolved?
Is “Hap”—in your opinion—a successful poem? What does it fail at? What does it succeed at?
Our conclusion often end with an assessment of the poem and perhaps its cultural significance. You could quote the Norton text here.
All papers must be uploaded as Microsoft Word docs to CANVAS. Google docs will not work. Emailing them to me doesn’t work either.
You may use any information in our Norton text for research purposes. Please note your quotations. USE MLA conventions to quote both the poems and material that use from the Norton notes, prefaces, or Introductions.
3-5 pages.

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