Analysis 5
Thomas Hardy is a poet born in England, who died at the age of 87 in Dorset. ”The Man He Killed”, one of Thomas Hardy's famous poems, based in World War I, describes the horror of war and how it affected soldiers who were still human beings with feelings. It was written from the point of view of a soldier who was expressing his shock at what war required him to do. The poem is spoken in first person, using the soldier as the speaker. The speaker was trying to explain to himself why he killed this man who he could have been friends with if they were somewhere else, like in a bar.
Thomas Hardy explained the stupidity of war by thinking about the things that were the same between the two men, who were enemies. Hardy thought about a friendship that could have existed between the two of them, if they had met somewhere else and not in war. It shows that a war is something horrible between different countries and religions instead of single men. He used a special way to describe the cruel of the war, in which he detailed displayed two common persons at that time, not criticizing the war straightly.
The tone was used to emphasize what he felt, which you can tell in this poem: anger, sadness, helplessness and commiseration. The poet used strong words to help you create an image in your head of how war affected their lives. Even though its language isn’t very complicated, it still contains some strong words to outstand the feeling that he wanted to emphasize. With each word in the right place, this poem can totally express what he wants to tell.
The poem is written in a conversational tone, with speech marks included, making us feel that the soldier is telling us personally in an informal way, and debating with us to understand his action in killing his enemy. The tone in the five stanzas is mainly full of regret, also complaining about war. He criticized that war had changed people’s personalities, compelled them to harm each other for no reasons.
In the beginning it has the same tone as the last stanza, which says, “Yes; quaint and curious war is.” The poet is sighing about the destiny of the soldier and the man he killed and some other unfortunate people who cannot be seen in this poem. In the first stanza, the poet says if they had met the man he killed at an inn or a bar, he would gladly have shared a few drinks with that man he killed. The word “BUT” is a clue to the reader that this is an alternate situation: what could have happened, rather than what actually did, as does the word “HAD”, and “SHOULD”. Nipper kin could be a metaphor for having a drink.(nipper kin: a half empty vessel in this case probably used to contain alcohol) “Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have set us down to wet Right many a nipper kin!” But since they met at war and shot at each other and he ended killing the other man. This verse is the introduction to the poem. It sets the scene. The main event-the killing-has already taken place and the poet is reflecting on the event, which allows him to give the readers a sense of place before he begins-almost like a flash back.
In the second stanza, the whole line is very simple. It has a resigned tone about it, as if he only shot him because he was going to shoot him. The main action in the poem takes place here. This is the event that the whole poem is about and it is surprisingly simple. In this stanza, he kills a man, a stranger perhaps one of his enemies. He doesn’t say anything about how the man looked, whether he was tall or short, he just refers to him as he. In his death, the man is still a stranger to him. He doesn’t even give detail about his face and they were staring face to face.
In the third stanza, his tone feels sorrow and helpless. He tries to find a reason to justify the killing but fails to find one. He is telling the audience how he knows nothing about him, “I shot him dead because-- Because he was my foe, just so: my foe of course he was; that's clear enough; although.” He seems to falter here with two “because”. He hesitates, and repeats a word, for the first time indicating that he feels at least some need to try to justify it to himself. However he eventually comes to the conclusion that he had to because it was his foe. Although he is still conscious that this reason is not good enough and does not excuse him for what he did. That “although” at the end of the line of this stanza reverberates with his confusion. ‘Why was his victim a foe?’ To this question he came up with no answer. Thomas Hardy explained the stupidity of war by thinking about the things that were the same between the two men, who were enemies. Hardy thought about a friendship that could have existed between the two of them, if they had met somewhere else and not in war. It shows that a war is something horrible between different countries and religions instead of single men. He used a special way to describe the cruel of the war, in which he detailed displayed two common persons at that time, not criticizing the war straightly.
The tone was used to emphasize what he felt, which you can tell in this poem: anger, sadness, helplessness and commiseration. The poet used strong words to help you create an image in your head of how war affected their lives. Even though its language isn’t very complicated, it still contains some strong words to outstand the feeling that he wanted to emphasize. With each word in the right place, this poem can totally express what he wants to tell.
The poem is written in a conversational tone, with speech marks included, making us feel that the soldier is telling us personally in an informal way, and debating with us to understand his action in killing his enemy. The tone in the five stanzas is mainly full of regret, also complaining about war. He criticized that war had changed people’s personalities, compelled them to harm each other for no reasons.
In the beginning it has the same tone as the last stanza, which says, “Yes; quaint and curious war is.” The poet is sighing about the destiny of the soldier and the man he killed and some other unfortunate people who cannot be seen in this poem. In the first stanza, the poet says if they had met the man he killed at an inn or a bar, he would gladly have shared a few drinks with that man he killed. The word “BUT” is a clue to the reader that this is an alternate situation: what could have happened, rather than what actually did, as does the word “HAD”, and “SHOULD”. Nipper kin could be a metaphor for having a drink.(nipper kin: a half empty vessel in this case probably used to contain alcohol) “Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have set us down to wet Right many a nipper kin!” But since they met at war and shot at each other and he ended killing the other man. This verse is the introduction to the poem. It sets the scene. The main event-the killing-has already taken place and the poet is reflecting on the event, which allows him to give the readers a sense of place before he begins-almost like a flash back.
In the second stanza, the whole line is very simple. It has a resigned tone about it, as if he only shot him because he was going to shoot him. The main action in the poem takes place here. This is the event that the whole poem is about and it is surprisingly simple. In this stanza, he kills a man, a stranger perhaps one of his enemies. He doesn’t say anything about how the man looked, whether he was tall or short, he just refers to him as he. In his death, the man is still a stranger to him. He doesn’t even give detail about his face and they were staring face to face.
In the fourth stanza the poet is telling about that they both have the list of name of each other, similar to complete a mission of killing each other. “Was out of work-had sold his traps-No other reason why.” It means, it is the war that forces him and the man he killed to take this gunfight with no other choice.
The last stanza sums up the speaker's views on the whole thing that has happened: “Yes; strange and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down you’d treat, where any bar is, or help to half a crown.”
”Half a crown” is probably a small amount of money, and "traps" means belongings. It comes back to the main point of the poem, that war is a strange phenomenon because a soldier finds himself forced to kill a man that he would otherwise have bought a drink for or lent money to if they had met in times of peace.
This poem is a quatrain, which is balanced and each stanza is 4 lines, so it sounds regular. Its lines are neither too long nor too short, therefore it won’t sound its idea is well organized. Each stanza expresses a different idea, except the first and the last ones. In the first and last stanzas, it is mainly sighing about their destinies, while in the second one, it is telling what takes place in the story, what has happened before that man is killed. In the third stanza it is trying to make a reason about that he did not kill that man in purpose, he has no choice. Then it comes to tell how helpless the soldier felt after killing a man who he had never known in the forth stanza. They don’t want to join the war, but they were forced to do so.
The language is very straightforward and easy to read and understand with exception of some few words. It uses an informal way to show it, so that might seem more just like the soldier who killed a man is talking on his own, which let people involve into the situation he is describing quickly. In stanza two, the language does not sound like his own; perhaps it is the soldier telling the story, it is fairly casual and is mostly quite conversational. There is some metaphors used in this poem, like nipper kin, infantry, quaint and curious. These metaphors are not specifically hard; they are just adjectives that we use in our everyday life.
The rhyme scheme and rhythm are regular and gives the poem quite a fast pace while reading it. As you can see there are 5 stanzas of 4 lines each and they have an ABAB CDCD EFEF rhyme scheme, which does not contain any near rhyme or assonance. There are some words repeated in the end, because he has to rhyme the poem.
The mood in this poem is sometimes aggressive and sometimes full of indignant which changes people’s mood while reading this poem, so people can feel the feelings of the poet easily. In this poem, the sound is not really outstanding, in the beginning and the end, which is soft and full of felling of sympathetic. It changes in the second, third, fourth stanza, and becomes harsh.
The first image that I came up with while reading this poem is a battle with dead bodies lying on the ground and there is still soldiers fighting. The sound of gun is everywhere. All in a sudden, a man was shot and killed. The words in this poem are created from words; it can give us a clearer idea of what it is saying about. Each word of this poem is connected, so it gives us a connected image all the way thru
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