"Hap" By Thomas Hardy

 Topics mentioned in this episode: -The Ohio Poetry Association-Milton: Anapests or nah?-Revisions of elisions -Bach deserves some rubato now and then -Thomas Hardy: Poet, novelist, romantic, modernist, man of mystery. -Shout out to those weird inbetweeners Robinson and Frost -What "hap" happens to mean -The Dante Rossetti of sonnets -Lear, Job, and other sad, god-smacked men -What exactly is in this ecstasy? -The awkward moment when you realize that both the horrific theological scenarios you talk about accurately describe the Christian god. -Cool it with the spondees! -A bad god is better than no god -Where mete and meter meet. -Cretics and Amphibrachs? Somebody stop me! -Hardy has some assumptions to answer for -The real difference between believers and atheists -The fractal dance of chaos and order in the universe -The universe desires order via us. -Two kinds of "dice" are twice as nice -Two kinds of "doom" threaten and loom -Scansion to bacchic excess -Bill Coyle! -As usual, the Greeks did it first Text of poem: Hap 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. Support the showVISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok:  @versecraftSend me a note at: [email protected] favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)