In the poem “The Man He Killed', why does the poet wish if he had met his “enemy' in an old inn? How does this wish contribute to the theme of the
poem?
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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. Effect of war is the major theme of this poem. The poem is about the soldier killing another man because they are fighting on opposite fronts in the war. Ironically, the speaker fails to justify his action. He simply states that the deceased was his foe.

Explanation:

- "a.) it includes letters and books gathered over 1200 years, and consists of two parts.

- most of the new testament is letters from paul to the different churches, and since there's a new testament that means there is an old testament. "