In Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed,” Thomas Hardy conveys the harsh realities of war. The poem shows Hardy’s viewpoint on war in general, rather than one specific war. Thomas Hardy wrote this poem on the Boer Wars, which took place in South Africa. The Boer Wars are fought by the British and the Boers from South Africa. Thomas Hardy is an English novelist and poet who is very well known throughout the world of poetry and literature. In “The Man He Killed,” the speaker is an experienced soldier who kills a man during the war, and the speaker questions his reason for killing this man. The speaker does not know why he kills this man, and this is how Hardy conveys his personal viewpoint on war. Thomas Hardy uses understatements, personification, …show more content…
Poets use imagery to paint a picture into the minds of the audience in order to add a visual element to the play by using specific diction. Hardy says that the speaker and the man, the speaker kills, are “ranged as infantry,/ And staring face to face” ( 5-6). Hardy uses this imagery to give the audience a visual sense of the speaker, and the man the speaker kills. This diction creates imagery that shows that the two men are close in proximity at the time of the event, and that they recognize each other through visual contact. Hardy uses this specific imagery to instill his viewpoint on war to the audience, and to give the audience a visual representation of the poem. Hardy uses imagery again when the speaker shoots “at [the man killed] as he at me,/ And killed him in his place” (7-8). Hardy uses this imagery with a somber tone to give the audience a graphic and horrific representation of the speaker killing another man. The diction in this imagery substantiates that the man being killed was killed before he could even think. Hardy uses this imagery to show the gruesome violence that occurs in war. Thomas Hardy uses all these poetic devices to further instill the central purpose of the poem that war is futile and that it creates a void in humanity’s interactions among opposing societies, and this void cannot be replete by the continuation of