1a. What does the speaker say he might have done if he had met the man under other circumstances?
2a. Why did the speaker kill the other man?
3a. What words does the speaker use to describe war?
4a. Identify elements that show the speaker identifies with the man he killed.
5a. Evaluate the speaker's feelings toward what he has done.
1b. What kind of person do these actions suggest the speaker is?
2b. Why do you think the speaker hesitates in line 10?
3b. These are not the kinds of words people usually use to describe war. Why do you think the speaker uses these words?
4b. If the speaker had met the man first in a bar and then on the battlefield as an enemy, how do you think the speaker would have reacted to seeing him on the battlefield?
5b. Why is it important to dehumanize the enemy in a war?
Dialect. What nonstandard, dialectical expressions are used in this poem? What does the use of dialect reveal about the speaker? How does the use of dialect help to relate the speaker to the man he killed?
Irony and Understatement. What was the apparent situation between the two men when they met face to face? What was the common reality that they shared? What makes the killing of the other man ironic? Why is the speaker's description of war as "quaint and curious" ironic?
1a. What awakens the dead at the beginning of the poem?
2a. Of what does God assure the dead? What would happen if it were Judgment Day?
3a. What does Parson Thirdly wish he had done?
4a. Identify the events in English history that are alluded to in the last stanza.
5a. Do you think the attitude toward war expressed in this poem is justified? Why or why not?
1b. How do you know the speakers are dead?
2b. How does God feel about people? How do you know?
3b. What does the parson's attitude suggest about the state of humankind?
4b. Why might Hardy have chosen to make there allusions? What do they suggest about England as a whole?
5b. Compare and contrast Hardy's attitude towardwar with that expressed by Arnold in "Dover Beach."
Satire. What elements of this poem are darkly humorous? What failings do you think this satiric approach aims to reform?
Concrete Universal. What concrete example does the author give in this poem of people's absurd preoccupation with war? How does the ending of the poem serve to universalize the comments made about that example?
1a. What details of the environment does the speaker describe in stanza 1?
2a. To what does the speaker compare the land?
3a. What surprises the speaker?
4a. Identify elements that create a gloomy or grim mood through most of the poem.
5a. Evaluate whether the end of the poem is optimistic.
1b. At what time of day and in what season of the year is this poem set?
2b. How does the speaker feel toward his own time? Why might he feel this way?
3b. Why does this give the speaker hope?
4b. Imagine the speaker had heard the thrush on a sunny day. Do you think it would have the same effect? Why, or why not?
5b. What has given you hope at a time when you were feeling down?
Simile and Metaphor. Identify each of the following as a metaphor or a simile. Then identify the tenor and vehicle of each.
a. Winter's dregs
b. tangled bine-stems . . . / Like strings of broken lyres
c. The weakening eye of day
d. The land's sharp features seemed to be / The Century's corpse
e. His crypt the cloudy canopy
f. The wind his death-lament
g. to fling his soul
h. there trembled through / His happy good-night air / Some blessed Hope
Stanza and Slant Rhyme. What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza? Chart the rhyme scheme of the poem, identifying any slant rhymes.
1c.
4c.
5b.
6a.
10b.
13b.
15c.
17b.
21c.
25a.
27a.
1. Write a note of encouragement to somebody you know who is struggling. He or she may be trying to accomplish something, facing a loss or difficult decision, or confronting some other personal struggle.
2. Imagine that the speaker of "The Man He Killed" had met his enemy under different circumstances. Write a dialogue between the two of them.
3. In "Channel Firing" the speakers are dead. Write a ghost story based on the thoughts and actions of these or other dead people.
Translating Dialect. Rewrite the dialectical language in "The Man He Killed," page 819, in standard English. Then rewrite it in dialect or slang that is particular to your current time and place. Refer to the Language Arts Survey 3.5, "Dialects of English" for additional help.
Researching World Events. Research the events occurring in the world at the time that Hardy wrote "The Darkling Thrush." Why might Hardy have felt so depressed? Write a report about your findings.
Research Findings on World Events:
Sources Used:
