ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The poem’s form is a dramatic monologue in the voice of a returned soldier. There are five stanzas with four lines, following a regular metre and an ABAB rhyme scheme in each stanza. The first, second and last line of each verse is about six syllables long.

Detailed explanation-2: -And also, There are 6 kinds of figurative language found in the poem “The Man He Killed”, they are Irony, Allusion, Synecdoche, Simile, Hyperbole, Metaphor. The use of figurative language has also made the poems sound more beautiful, and the use of such figures also made poems attract the readers .

Detailed explanation-3: -Historical Context "The Man He Killed” was written in response to the Boer War. This was a conflict that took place in what is now referred to as South Africa and lasted from 1899-1902. It was euphemistically called “The Last of the Gentleman’s Wars, ” though it was anything but that.

Detailed explanation-4: -Stanza One This poem begins with the hypothetical that the speaker and a man meet up in “some old ancient inn”. Because the title is, “the man he killed” the readers can assume that the speaker is referring to the man he killed. He is giving a hypothetical to help the readers to understand the humanity of each of them.