Hardy

Hap



The idea of chance that this poem evokes was not what I thought it would be. His first stanza about the angry god that feeds on the suffering of the narrator doesn't sound like chance, but misfortune. It continues on to say that the tears he shed were of the same vengeful god caused. The god creates undesireable situations for the narrator to evoke pain upon him and his reactions to the pain give the god "jollies". The idea of dicing was the idea of chance that I would believe that his poem was to be about.



The Darking Thrush



This piece is different from the first. The imagery is different, more descriptive of the surroundings of the situation. Hardy takes special care to set a haunting tone over the poem, using a winter season and the words desolate. "I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost aas a spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate the weakening eye of day"(1074). The capitulization of the winter and frost suggests human characteristics. The emotion of the poem is dark and sullen. Almost sucking the life from the narrator as he walks through the winter scene.