Question

In what way is war quaint and curious according to Thomas Hardy?

Answer 1

Thomas Hardy:
Thomas Hardy was both a novelist and a poet. Through his poem he has sought to improve the society. In this poem he expresses his feelings by imagining himself with a soldier in a different situation. The poet has begun the poem with speculation. He visualized what he would have done to the man he killed if they had net earlier. If they had met earlier they would have sat and drunk together and they would have been amicable. But both of them have been enlisted in the army of their own country as they met in the battlefield the poet shot dead the enemy on the spot. Then the poet explains that he had to kill him because "he was an enemy". He has left a pause between two "because" in the poem. This shows his hesitation and dislike for his act. He insisted that he had to kill him as he was an enemy but the uncertainty is again reinforced by a single word "although". The poet has a thought that he had joined in the army with no specific reason as he had no proper job. He had sold his instruments and joined in the army. The poet added that his enemy had also done the same thing. He muses over the war and feels that was is useless for human society. The war pushes the society back, so he hates the war. Unless it is a battlefield he would not kill the man.