Context/Abt the Poet

• Written by Thomas Hardy in 1902
• Thomas Hardy was a novelist and poet from Dorset
• He was influenced heavily by Romanticism, particularly Wordsworth and was critical of many aspects of Victorian society
• He is famous for his novels which are set in the South-West, and use real places with made-up names.
• Hardy was interested in social reform
• Hardy was raised Christian, but later began to question the teachings of the church.
• Hardy was against the Boer War, which took place in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century
• War is the conflict. However there is conflict within the speaker himself- he cannot quite understand why war takes place and cannot quite see that it happens because of politicians.

  Short powerful poem. Working class soldier shows the absurdity and futility of war, demonizing the enemy as “foe” is an important device to justify murder and dreadful randomness of war. Anti-war poem.