Tag Archives: "Hap"

Why Poetry When Tsunamis Strike

By Robin Bates | Published: October 3, 2018

Poetry seems inadequate to deal with large scale natural disasters but we turn to it anyway.

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Conspiracy Theories Explained

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2015

Why do conspiracy theories thrive? Because people can’t face up to the emptiness that would come with a real explanation. Thomas Hardy understands the phenomenon in his poem “Hap.”

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When Events Defy Human Understanding

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2011

As I wrote last year when the earthquake hit Haiti, all human language, even literature, comes up short when faced with disaster and death. Literature is language by humans about humans, and destruction on this scale seems to laugh narrative and image to scorn. Nevertheless, being human, we try to bring even apocalyptic disasters into a […]

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