the man he killed. summary in 200 words
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The Man He Killed Summary & Analysis
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"The Man He Killed" was written by the British Victorian poet and novelist Thomas Hardy, and first published in 1902. A dramatic monologue, the poem's speaker recounts having to kill a man in war with whom he had found himself "face to face." Talking casually throughout, the speaker discusses how this man could easily have been his friend, someone he might have, under different circumstances, had a drink with in an "ancient inn." Struggling to find a good reason for shooting the man, the speaker says it was "just so"—it was just what happens during war. The poem thus highlights the senselessness and wasteful tragedy of human conflict, and is specifically thought to have been inspired by the events of the Boer War in South Africa.
Answer:
The Man He Killed” Summary
"If only we'd met in some old pub, we would have sat down and shared many a beer!
"But I met him on the battlefield, each of us aiming at the other. We both took aim and fired, but he missed, while my shot killed him where he stood.
"I shot him dead because... well, because he was the enemy, that's all. He was the one I was supposed to shoot, obviously.
"Then again, he'd probably joined his army in similar circumstances to me, on a kind of whim. He was probably out of work at the time, just like I was. He'd probably had to sell his belongings—I can't think why else he would have enlisted.
"Yup, war is a very strange thing! You end up shooting someone who you'd get along well with in a bar—who you'd even give money if they needed it."