BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (TESL)

BIS3403 POETRY IN ENGLISH

ASSIGNMENT 1

RACHAEL ANAK
NAME
RAZAK
MATRIC NO D20181084641
GROUP A
DR. REVATHI A/P
LECTURER’S NAME
GOPAL
DATE OF SUBMISSION 15TH MAY 2020
 The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy

“The Man He Killed” is a poem that was written by Thomas Hardy and published in
1902. Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet during the Victorian era. He wrote the
poem specifically thought to have been inspired by the events of the Boer War in South Africa.
‘The Man He Killed’ is about how the narrator describes his feelings of killing his opponent
during war.

The setting of this poem is during the Victorian era in which the Boer War also were
on going. Boer War or South African War occur between 1899 to 1902. The war was between
Great Britain and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free
State).

The central idea of this poem is war. It describes how senseless and pointless the war
is. Men are forced to kill each other just because they are on the opposite sides. The poem
debating the fact that the war ignores the common humanity between two sides of people on a
different side of conflict. The poem expresses the idea the two men would not kill each other
if they happen to have met each other at a pub. They might have enjoyed a few drinks together.
In the second stanza, it is clear that the poem states that one had to die as it is inevitable to do
so to opposing sides in a war. In the third stanza, the narrator started to feel guilty by his action
but he assuring himself that his action is reasonable since the other soldier is his enemy. After
settling his self-argument, the narrator started to compare how similar he and his foe were in
the next stanza. In the end, he ignores his doubt. The poem attracts its power from the narrator’s
hesitation. Ironically, the narrator focusing Hardy’s views on war by what he ignores from his
argument, unwillingly to accept the seemingly true conclusion, so it can be conclude that the
war is murderous and wrong.

The poem is quite short. It has 5 stanzas. It is straightforward and no figurative language
used. The poem is written in quatrains with ABAB rhyme scheme. The interesting structure
in this poem is the line length used in every stanza. Most line of every stanza are written in
trimeter except for the third line, written in tetrameter. The writer may impersonate a deeper
emotional weight given to these extended lines. The light hearted tone of this poem may be
deceiving as the meter used are straightforward and well organized but the tone changes every
stanza. In stanza one, the narrator focusing on what he could have done if the situation was
different. In stanza two the narrator explaining the reality. While in the third stanza, the narrator
tries to rationalize his action. Then, in the fourth stanza has him argue the similar nature
between himself and his foe. In the last stanza, he is about to surrender from knowledgeable
aware of the circumstances. The tone shows as if the narrator goes from a humble and fond
thought to a dark and depressing tone of the immense amount of regret he has. Interestingly,
this poem is so direct that it is focusing on the human side of war itself at the very end.

Thomas Hardy uses informal and spontaneous choice of vocabulary in his poem. The
poem scattered with slang terms such as the word ‘nipperkin’, a small amount of beer, wine,
or other liquid. He also uses the word ‘list’ for enlist. This informal diction indicates that the
narrator is from lower class status as this statement can be found in stanza 4 of the poem. The
narrator was unemployed before he joins the army. In line 11, ‘my foe of course he was’ and
line 12, ‘That’s clear enough’ shows that as if the narrator attempt to assure himself that
rationale is clearly the reason why he killed the other soldier. The nature of these repetitive
phrases gives the belief that the narrator tried hard enough to assure himself that the excuse of
him killing the other soldier proves his action, and it shows that the narrator as the truth, is
having difficulty to cover-up his dreadful act with sensible reason.

Hardy employs a great variety of literary devices in “The Man He Killed”. For instance,
he uses assonance in the poem. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line.
This can be found in line 18 of the poem, “You shoot a fellow down”. The sound of vowel /oo/
is repetitively used. Hardy also use imagery to attract the reader by using their five senses to
interpret things. In the first line of the poem, “Had he and I but met” indicates that the narrator
meeting his foe at a pub. This line allows the readers to use their eye sense of sight to see the
narrator’s point of view. If the two of them were meeting at a pub rather than crossing path at
a war, the outcomes may be different. Lastly, Hardy also use irony as literary device in his
poem. Irony is used in a way that it is meant to be used differently from its true meaning. In
the first stanza of the poem, the irony is that the narrator express that he would not kill the man
if they had met at a bar in the first place.
REFERENCES
Contributors, W. (2016, May 13). Critical Analysis of The Man he Killed by Thomas Hardy.
Retrieved May 12, 2020, from https://beamingnotes.com/2016/05/10/critical-analyy-
thomas-hardy/#Themes_of_The_Man_he_Killed

The Man He Killed Summary & Analysis by Thomas Hardy. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2020,
from https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/thomas-hardy/the-man-he-killed

The Man He Killed. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2020, from

http://kingsenglishrevision.weebly.com/poetry/the-man-he-killed

Spirko, J. (2019, January 10). "The Man He Killed" Poetry Analysis. Retrieved May 10,
2020, from https://penandthepad.com/the-man-killed-poetry-analysis-12285566.html