War
The poem is a criticism of war, and it shows the senselessness of war, where people kill each other for simple reasons or no reason at all. The language is simple and dry, factual, and it is told from a perspective of a man recounting killing another man in war. This man might have been his friend, but in that situation he was his foe and he killed him for some reason, he can’t even surely recount exactly why.
Senselessness and remorse
The poem is told in a simple syntax, as a monologue of a man recounting murdering someone in war. He stumbles on his phrases and sentences while describing the scene and reason for his killing indicating that he might feel remorse for what he’d done, and his awareness of the senselessness of it.
Desperation
Towards the end of the poem, the speaker tells us that he was out of work, meaning that he joined the war in desperation, in need. The reason for killing the man is that it was a part of his job, something he was told to do. War takes the most toil on those who lose everything and are in a desperate need to provide for their existence.
