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Nikoo Posted 14 years ago
Essay & Composition Writing

A Part of a Poem

Could you please tell me what the poet is trying to say in the fourth stanza?

Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set 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.

(The man he killed; by Thomas Hardy)

Thanks in advance.
Nikoo
  

Top answer

When war came, maybe he thought he'd enlist ( " 'list " ), and maybe he just did it on the spur of the moment ("off-hand"), just like I did. Maybe, like me, he was simply out of work at the time war broke out and had sold his small game traps (and therefore couldn't catch anything to eat). Maybe that's the only reason why he was in the army.

— Anonymous

  • When war came, maybe he thought he'd enlist ( " 'list " ), and maybe he just did it on the spur of the moment ("off-hand"), just like I did.
  • Maybe, like me, he was simply out of work at the time war broke out and had sold his small game traps (and therefore couldn't catch anything to eat).
  • Maybe that's the only reason why he was in the army.
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1 Answers
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When war came, maybe he thought he'd enlist ( " 'list " ), and maybe

he just did it on the spur of the moment ("off-hand"), just like I did.

Maybe, like me, he was simply out of work at the time war broke out and had sold his small game traps (and therefore couldn't catch anything to eat).

Maybe that's the only reason why he was in the army.
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