Explore "The Man he Killed" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"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. "