POETRY | The Man He Killed

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

The Boer War (1899-1902): A Poem Analysis

• The Boer War was a conflict between the British Empire and two South African states.
• The Boers fought for independence, but the British remained in control.
• The war was criticized for destroying farmland, forcing civilians into concentration camps, and causing many deaths.
• Thomas Hardy, an English man from Dorset, was against the war and criticized the politics of his time.
• Hardy’s poem, ‘The Soldier’, reflects his disbelief in the war and the ethical implications of politicians’ decisions.
• Hardy’s background, as a working-class man, allows him to relate to his persona and suggest a class commentary.
• Hardy replicated Dorset expressions in the poem, representing the language of working-class Dorset people in a ‘high art’ form.

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

Hardy’s Poem Analysis
* Uses a light-hearted ABAB rhyme scheme, mimicking a nursery rhyme.
* Establishes a contrast between the poem’s rhythm and violent content.
* Reflects the nature of conflict, with politicians often portraying war as patriotic.
* Draws parallels between a nursery rhyme and the poem to illustrate catastrophic decisions.
* Raises questions about war ethics, highlighting disregard for human life.
* Contrasts with non-standard English in the Dorset dialect.

Question 3

Form

Answer 3

• The poem begins and ends with a pub reference, symbolizing the destructive cycle of war.
• The poem suggests no answers to speaker’s anxieties.
• It highlights the moral questions of war and conflict.
• The cyclical nature of the poem suggests war’s futility, suggesting it has no goal or end.

Question 4

Language

Answer 4

The poem highlights the futility of war and the senselessness of the tragedy it causes. As the
speaker repeatedly points out, the man he killed was his equal, someone he would have
treated with respect and kindness (‘help to half-a-crown’) if he’d met him in a bar. Therefore,
we can infer that the speaker is wondering, why was it he that died and not I? Likewise, the
speaker imagines the man enlisted casually ‘off-hand like’ or for poverty-related reasons.
The speaker does not even conjecture that the man might have felt patriotic – perhaps
patriotism is so remote or alien a sentiment that it is not even considered a possible
motivating force. The complete lack of patriotic spirit evinced by the speaker means the
poem contrasts dramatically with other more patriotic war poems written in the late
nineteenth century or earlier twentieth century – a good example of this would be Rupert
Brooke’s (1914) poem ‘The Soldier’.