blog 2: The Man He Killed

The man he killed is a very meaningful yet depictive poem. The poem begins with the speaker talking about how this certain person (which can be assumed is the man he killed by the title) who he would have been friends with had he met him at an "ancient inn". The speaker we find out in the second paragraph, is a soldier who is in the battlefield and he has just shot down the man with whom he could have been friends with, had he not been on the opposing side. The poem shows that the only reason he killed the man, was because he was his enemy of war, not because he actually had anything against the man. He was the same type of man as himself, one who had no money and sold all of his belonging to fight for the army. The speaker shows how war can put men who could potentially be good friends or acquaintances, against each other for reasons no more than the fact that they are on opposite sides of the battlefield. The speaker expresses the irrationality of war because the individual people possibly have no difference than the individual people on the other side, besides the side that they are standing on. Overall this poem gives us another instance of humanity and how destructive the things we come up with can be.