The Man He Killed
The Man He Killed is a poem written in 1902 by Thomas Hardy which focuses on the senselessness and futility of war. The poem is written from the viewpoint of a soldier who killed a man on the battlefield. The narrator expresses the view that if they had only met in different circumstances, at an inn for instance, the outcome may have been different. Then he goes on to describe how he had killed the man and attempts to reassure himself by explaining the reasons for shooting him. In the end, he has no real justifiable reason for shooting the man and stresses how "quaint and curious war is" to make one kill a man as easily as becoming friends at an inn.
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