The man he killed -- thomas hardy

context

written at time of Boer war

Boer war had first ever concentration camps — 120,000 injured + 22,000 dead

Thomas Hardy — anti-war poet / sees war as inferior and less significant than country life.

synopsis

a soldier shoots and kills an enemy solider

he discusses whether the two might have been friends if they had met under different circumstances

he says that war is futile and strange

‘had he and I but met

by some old ancient inn’

no one is named = this poem is universal

old ancient inn is a completely contrasting, pleasant, image to the battlefield

‘right many a nipperkin!’

informal, colloquial language shows that he is and ordinary man — it’s like he is talking to a friend.

‘and staring face to face’

shows how the two soldiers are similar.

it is almost like a mirror showing how the soldiers are in identical positions and could be thinking the exact same thing, feeling the exact same way.

‘I shot him dead because

because he was my foe.’

I shot him dead shows he is replaying the scenario in his head.

repetition of ‘because’ shows he is stumbling to think of a proper reason to kill this man.

‘…he was my foe

just so: my foe of course he is’

repetition of ‘foe’ shows that he is trying to convince himself that what he did was right and that he was actually an enemy.

‘Yes; quaint and curious war is!’

is worded almost like an ironic joke but with a sense of bitterness behind it.