Poem: The Man he Killed by Thomas Hardy
Yesterday I was pondering an article I had read and the subsequent brain-exploding discussion on war and 'duty' that I'd had with a colleague. The topic was still stuck in my brain this morning so here it is again.
The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
"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."
As a young koala I went through a Thomas Hardy phase and got down and stayed down with his sad, bleak depressing novels of pain, suffering, madness, betrayal and death. This poem popped into my head this morning because I still have the topic of war/duty on the brain. Hardy capitalises 'Man' and 'Killed'. I'm not sure whether he does this to emphasise the significance of what has taken place or whether or not it's supposed to be symbolic of the killing in general of men during war. On the first interpretation, perhaps he refers to the deceased as the Man because he doesn't know his name and this is his way of respecting him. I'm more inclined to think that it's the latter interpertation, that Man means the many men who are killed during battle.
It's the warmer side of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by W.B. Yeats in which the Irishman says very coldly:
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love
Again as another contrast, the series The Civil War by Ken Burns featured a reading of a letter from Sullivan Ballou, a Major in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers who wrote home to his wife in Smithfield a week before the battle of Bull Run. In the letter, Sullivan Ballou (who is killed in battle) writes:
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.
If he feels qualms about killing he doesn't betray them in his letter. He believes in the justness of his cause. It's interesting to see the different takes on the subject matter.
On a completely unrelated note, I've discovered that when people change their user names, all my links to posts in their journal get torpedoed. :P There's no auto-forward. *sigh* Also, I think that the greyness of the day outside is affecting my mood.
* who is kung fu chicken?
The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
"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."
As a young koala I went through a Thomas Hardy phase and got down and stayed down with his sad, bleak depressing novels of pain, suffering, madness, betrayal and death. This poem popped into my head this morning because I still have the topic of war/duty on the brain. Hardy capitalises 'Man' and 'Killed'. I'm not sure whether he does this to emphasise the significance of what has taken place or whether or not it's supposed to be symbolic of the killing in general of men during war. On the first interpretation, perhaps he refers to the deceased as the Man because he doesn't know his name and this is his way of respecting him. I'm more inclined to think that it's the latter interpertation, that Man means the many men who are killed during battle.
It's the warmer side of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by W.B. Yeats in which the Irishman says very coldly:
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love
Again as another contrast, the series The Civil War by Ken Burns featured a reading of a letter from Sullivan Ballou, a Major in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers who wrote home to his wife in Smithfield a week before the battle of Bull Run. In the letter, Sullivan Ballou (who is killed in battle) writes:
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.
If he feels qualms about killing he doesn't betray them in his letter. He believes in the justness of his cause. It's interesting to see the different takes on the subject matter.
On a completely unrelated note, I've discovered that when people change their user names, all my links to posts in their journal get torpedoed. :P There's no auto-forward. *sigh* Also, I think that the greyness of the day outside is affecting my mood.
* who is kung fu chicken?