The Man He Killed
"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."
Commentary
I don’t know how you feel about Thomas Hardy. Most people know him as a writer of novels, but here’s a poem of his that I ran across some days ago. The message in this poem is obvious–no subtleties here. But I still like it. I don’t know anything about when exactly Hardy wrote this poem or in response to what incident; if anybody does, I wouldn’t mind hearing about it.
— Jeff