The Man He Killed - Thomas Hardy
A Soldier’s Reflection on the Absurdity of Killing One’s ‘Foe’
The Man He Killed
by 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 as 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.”
In “The Man He Killed,” Thomas Hardy illustrates the paradox of war through a simple and direct monologue. The speaker recalls an enemy soldier he killed in battle, musing on how under other circumstances—had they met in a pub, for instance—they might have shared a friendly drink. Instead, they confronted each other as foes on opposing sides, leading to a fatal shot.
Throughout the poem, Hardy exposes how arbitrary enmity can be when soldiers are conscripted or enlist due to economic desperation rather than personal malice. The speaker repeats the justification—“because he was my foe”—but quickly acknowledges the oddity of that reasoning. The man he killed might just as easily have been a friend in different conditions. This central irony reflects Hardy’s broader critique of warfare: that political or societal pressures turn ordinary men into adversaries who destroy one another for reasons they do not fully comprehend.
Hardy uses short, colloquial stanzas to bring a stark clarity to the soldier’s self-reflection. The repeated words “Because—because” highlight the speaker’s uncertainty about his own rationale for taking a life. Ultimately, the poem’s power lies in its straightforward, almost casual, examination of moral conflict. By the final lines, the speaker underscores the “quaint and curious” nature of war, in which a person one might help or befriend is nonetheless reduced to a target on the battlefield.
Key points
• The poem underscores the senselessness of killing in war, highlighting shared humanity.
• Hardy’s simple, colloquial language reveals the speaker’s uneasy struggle to justify taking a life.
• It critiques the arbitrary nature of enmity imposed by political or socioeconomic forces.
• “The Man He Killed” remains a classic example of Hardy’s skepticism toward the glorification of military conflict.
