Had he and I but metBy some old ancient inn,We should have sat us down to wetRight 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; althoughHe thought he

Summary

In this quote from the poem "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy, the speaker reflects upon the senselessness and irony of war. He laments the missed opportunity to be friends with his enemy if they had met in a friendly setting, imagining them sitting together in a pub having drinks. However, due to their roles as soldiers facing each other on the battlefield, they ultimately ended up shooting each other. The speaker acknowledges that his actions were driven by the fact that the enemy was his "foe" and expresses the clear justification for killing him, even though he recognizes the shared humanity between them.

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