The Man He Killed

1) Half-a-crown is a coin formerly used in Great Britain, worth two shillings and sixpence.

2) The poem was mainly written as a “what if” piece. It is about an infantry soldier who was forced to kill a man in battle and he wonders what would it have been like if they had met in a bar as regular men instead. There is broken syntax at the beginning of the third stanza, I shot him dead because—Because he was my foe. He is trying to justify why he had to kill this man because he is having a hard dealing with the aspect of war that is “kill or be killed,” and he isn’t comfortable taking another man’s life. This most likely means he is not an experienced soldier. The fact that he puts although at the end of the third stanza just reinforces the idea that even though he can justify it, it still doesn’t make it right in his eyes. In the first stanza it says, had he and I but met by some old ancient inn, this plays into he “what if” thinking of had they met in any form of traditional way, such as through friends, at a store, at a bar etc., then he wouldn’t have had to or been allowed to kill him.

3) Hardy uses words such as nipperkin, traps and half-a-crown, which are all examples of dialect. He also uses exact rhyme, such as perhaps/traps and down/crown. By using dialect and exact rhyme it helps makes it a well-written piece of poetry.