The Man He Killed, is a poem wich was written in 1902 by Thomas Hardy. The peom is about the boer war wich took place between Great brittan and South Africa. Hardy wasn't actually in the boer was, however i think he got his quates of other people's opinions.
" Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
In the first stanza, some one is talking but we don't no who yet, are who he is talking to. He talks in a casual tone, he talks about how they could of been friends and get along with one another.
"Had he and i but met
By some old ancient inn"
His tone is very general, like he is calm and just having a casual conversation. In the fist line he introduces the two main characters, " he and I" He dosn't go in depth about "he" this could be because it makes him emotinol about what had happend. However this could also mean he is just one of the enemys that didn't mean anything to him.
"We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!"
This shows that the two men, if they had met in other circumstances met eachother outside a pub they would have enjoyed a few drinks ("Right many a nipperkin") together.
"But raged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place
It turns out that the speaker and the other guy were enemies in war. "ranged as infantry" This shows that they was on foot. This could show that they were lined up in ranks for battle, that they could totaly look right at eachother. "I shot at him as he shot at me" He uses dramatic monologue and he dosn't go in detail, this could be because he dosn't want to talk about it on the other