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Jun. 8th, 2015 at 7:49 PM
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."
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."
Comments
Yeah...a post about recent events made me recall the poem, and surprisingly, it'd not been posted to this comm before, nor have I posted it to my LJ before.
As to the post--it was someone reposting a post from VKontakte from a young woman who said how heartbroken she was b/c her uncle/stepfather died in the current conflict in Ukraine--"he was such a sweet person, wouldn't hurt a fly! He only enlisted there b/c he needed money to pay for his child's medical treatment"
*Sigh* bit different, I know, but the same motif, isn't it?
Very sad