“The Man He Killed” – Poetry Journal 2

When I began reading the poem “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy, I got the impression that the poem was a man’s memory of a bar fight. “Had he and I but met/ By some old ancient inn” (lines 1-2). It seemed that the two had just met and one killed the other. However, as I read on it seemed that the two men were enemy’s that had just met. “I shot him dead/ because he was my foe” (lines 9-10). This brought me to the conclusion that this was the story of a soldier. As the poem went on, the soldier described how he felt about his experience. “He thought he’d list. Perhaps,/ off-hand-like – just as I” (lines 13-14). This seems to suggest that the soldier was questioning the decision he made to kill the other man. I also found this part of the poem difficult to understand. It seemed that Hardy was trying to show the soldier’s difficulty accepting his actions through his impaired speech. One example would be when the soldier was not able to complete a smooth sentence in lines 13 and 14 as shown above. Hardy continues, “Yes; quaint and curious war is!/ You shoot a fellow down/ You’d treat if met where any bar is,/ Or help to half-a crown” (lines 17-20). It seemed that in the last four lines, the soldier was trying to tell himself that it was just an act of war; almost like he was trying to comfort himself.