Below is the text for another of my favorite poems. This one speaks to the theme of people being enemies because of a word of command, instead of personal conflicts. Respond to this poem and relate it to both the book as well as any other war literature or movies.
The Man He Killed ~Thomas Hardy
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
"But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him and he at me,
And killed him in his place.
"I shot him dead because –
Because he was my foe,
Just so – my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
"He thought he'd 'list perhaps,
Off-hand like – just as I –
Was out of work – had sold his traps –
No other reason why.
"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."
Lit Terms 2
5 years ago
14 comments:
The man he killed is much like All Quiet on the Western Front. Because if they werent at war and they met eachother they could of been friends. But since they are at war they have a whole different mind set which is to kill the enemy. Its really sad that, thats how it has to be. But as of now there is no other way to solve it, just like how paul had no other choice but to kill the man.
SHEENA LEWIS
I thought that this poem was really really touching! I felt like it was saying alot about what happenes during war alot, about how if they had met under different circumstances they could be friends. I find it a bit cruel that the higher powers just give a word and the smaller soldiers are supposed to go out there and kill inoccent men. Thats my opinion though.
Nataliya Migovich
I know he is saying that he killed men that may have been his friend "if they had ever met before". I find this ironic because all soilders knew was that the men across from them were the enemy. They didn't know who they were, what they did, or if they had a family. The irony is that your killing men just like yourself and not knowing it and i believe that is what Thomas Hardy is trying to get across. If you look back on the civil war you had brothers killing brothers, cousins killing cousins, and even sons killing fathers(vise versa). You just didn't know who it was on the other side but knew they were the "enemy".
Dustin Shelton
The poet says that he had to kill a man because a higher authority claimed him to be an enemy. Hardy states that was enough reason to shoot the man. He says it is strange because war is the only situation in which that can occur. If Hardy had met the man in a bar and the barkeeper gave him a gun to shoot that man only because the barkeeper claims that man to be Hardy's enemy, Hardy would think the barkeeper was crazy.
Kent Connell
Define "enemy." When you think about it, who is your enemy? The dictionary defines an enemy as "an opposing force." It is rather ironic that soldiers must kill people that they don't know. They have to take it as an unwritten rule that the person is their enemy. Is it really even right to let someone else tell you who your enemies are?
Kent, you make a great point as well. When you really look at war in those terms, you can see why some people are simply anti-war, no matter the circumstances. Who is the last anonymous? Whoever you are, you make an excellent point. If you will somehow post your name, I can then give you credit for that insightful comment :)
The poem makes the same great point that is made in the book All Quite on the Western Front. If they were to actually know the men they were fighting against or think of them as humans with lives and families like themselves, rather than just an abstraction, they would not be able to shoot them. The poem and book make me look at war differantly. Before i never put myself in a soilders position and thought about how it would affect me and what decisions i would make. After reading the book it seems to me like we could find a better way to slove the world's problems other than killing innocent men just like yourself.
Taylor Crumbley
It seems so cruel to me when I read that poem because my point-of-view of war is this horrific, grusome picture that I have only read about in books like All Quiet on the Western Front. To men in war, it is like a job to kill the other man way across the field. They are nothing but another days work. It is only when they come face to face, like Paul did, to see that the other man is not just a job to be done but a human being that is just like themselves. They have families and friends just like they do, and what makes them so different than there friends back in camp? I have to say that i very much enjoyed this poem.
Even though that this poem is very cruel and inhumane, it is the sad truth to war. I strongly agree with Kent's blog talking about enemies. As in this poem and many other war literatures, "enemies" do not have a grudge held towards one another, they have simply been told to take their gun and kill whoever comes in their way. This method has no regards to whether the HUMAN you are shooting at has a family and a past life like your self
Colton Ward
Great comments on a thought-provoking poem!
As Dustin said, that brothers killing brothers, etc... They didn't even know who they were killing except that they had to or they would be punished by the higher authority, who told them to do it. So, they are basically forced to do anything they say since they could punish them with imprisonment for the rest of their life.
This is a masterpiece of serious poetic proportions. It's about this man, not (apparently)troubled by the fact that he killed someone mainly because the man he killed was on an opposite side. No, he may not have known the man he killed, but he did what had to be done in order to go on with war. I'm not saying it is right, but if he hadn't had murdered the opposing force, he would have been possibly disemboweled. I like the fact that this poem focuses on the gritty reality that is WAR instead of lying and saying that everyone that died in WAR didn't die in their sleep.
- Jake Hartline
I agree with Sheena in a way. The men that they are killing could have easily become their friends or even family. But the way the soldiers are trained makes them see anyone on the opposite side of the field as basicaly a moving taget. It is only when you are face to face that you can truly see those targets for who they really are.
Will Hearn
I surprisingly agree with Jake. The man may have seemed cruel simply by how he stated his actions, but he ultimately had no choice. The poem really takes into account how soldiers have to kill their "fellow man" regardless of if they want or feel the need to do so.
- Tim Horick
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