Thomas Hardy is a Victorian-era English author best known for novels like Far From the Madding Crowd and Tess of d'Urbervilles. However, Hardy was also a prolific poet. His poems, including "The Man He Killed," written and published in 1902, were widely read and interpreted by people worldwide. In a time in which the world was engulfed in war ("The Man He Killed" was written during the Boer War), "The Man He Killed" was considered by many critics to be an incredibly timely and essential poem.
"The Man He Killed" is set during a battle between two unnamed men. Hardy's poem deals with each man's struggle as they decide whether to kill the other man. Each man also considers whether they would have been friends had they met in another context, making them question whether war is worth the cost.
