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StudentMr. LeonardAmerican Lit-106 October 2012The Man He Killed Poetry ResponseThe Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy is a very interesting poem written. Throughout the latter portions of the poem, the shooter describes his gunshot as one shot “because he was my foe,” showing that he shot this man because he was simply his enemy. Regret the poem does not reveal. Specific motives the poem does not reveal. The only motive provided is a rather general reason stated.The rest of the poem, however, seems to be one that is not easily understood to me due to the wording provided (phrase would understand you this?) For example, the real meaning is not clearly evident when Hardy states “You shoot a fellow down, You’d treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown.” What does “half-a-crown” mean? Is it talking about a literal crown? Is it talking about a “crown” of higher authority, ordaining the shooter to shoot the other man? If so, why would one “help to half-a-crown”? Is it to destroy a “dynasty” or a drug lord’s cronies, one person at a time? Perhaps that may be the real motive, especially if “met where any bar is.” Another vague phrase goes “He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps, Off-hand like-just as I-, Was out of work-had sold his traps-, No other reason why.” What does this mean? Did the shot man have literal traps? What’s the “off-hand” thing? Was the shot man unemployed? Did the shot man actually work for a drug dealer, or did he work for, perhaps, a trap business? What would the shooter want with a trap dealer? Why would the shooter want to shoot a trap dealer? What did the trap dealer do in order to make himself the enemy of the shooter? Did anybody else witness this event? This poem leaves me with many questions to ask, but with no answers to be found. After all, if Introduction to Poetry exhorts people to place themselves within the poem, how could I place myself in a vague, tangent-forming poem of which uses odd sentence structure to state its story? ................
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