Thomas Hardy: The Man He Killed (Essay Sample)

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The Man He Killed
Thomas Hardy presents an anti-war poem in which he narrates how he met a strange man in the battlefield and killed him for a reason he cannot tell. He seems to regret his action and wishes that he could have met the person in an ancient bar where they could have drunk together. The poet has dealt much in describing how he killed the man he met in a battlefield, providing details on how the situation was. By analyzing the poem, The Man He Killed, this paper seeks to discuss how the poet has employed the use of metaphor, imagery and tone to elucidate how the war he once fought took away the humane in him, leading him to commit sometime he could not have done to a potential friend were he not subjected to a battlefield.
In battlefields, soldiers are given orders by their commandant, which they obligated to adhere to no matter the situation. The poet has specified that he was at the forefront of the battle as an infantry indicating that he was receiving orders from someone else to act in the war. He says, “But ranged as infantry (5), and staring face to face (6),” indicating that as a soldier he was commanded or ordered to go face his opposing side, with whom he fought. The tone portrayed in these stanzas depict the horrific nature of the war where a soldier has to face his enemy face to face knowing very well that he could be killed in the process. In the war, he described how they shot at each other, ending up killing someone that could be his potential drinking buddy.
In the poem, the author has clearly indicated lack of awareness of the reasons he shot his potential friend. He is saying that, “I shot him dead because-- (9), Because he was my foe (10).” The fact that he is repeating the word ‘because’ shows that he does not know the reason he shot the stranger. The tone exposes his confusion in which he tries to come up with an explanation to justify his unintended action. The long pause after stanza (9) shows he is doubtful of whether the man he killed was actually his enemy or not. However, because he was an infantry, he acted appropriately, as it was expected, because he was just a mere soldier following orders from those at the top.
As the poem ends, the author finally concludes why he killed the man. Although this comes after much confusion and self-convincing, he agrees that there was not substantial reason that could link the dead man to ‘his enemy,’ as he initially wanted to justify. The metaphor used in the stanzas, ‘He thought he'd 'list perhaps (13), Off-hand like-just as i- (14),’ confirms that the author acknowledges t...