The+Man+he+Killed

I think the poet wrote this because he wanted to let go of something that may have hung over and haunted him for a very long time. I think he wanted to tell this story not only in respect to himself but to the man he killed, the man who never got to go home. The highest point of the poem is when the speaker says, "he fired at me as I at him and a took him in his place." Meaning it could have gone either way-- he could have died or the other man could have perished, but they were both firing at one another with the same intentions. It was just fate that he came out and the other didn't. I think this message speaks to violence in general. It tells us violence is barbaric. It doesn't help anyone because in the end a person has the same chance at living as the person he/she is fighting. I think that he wrote it to tell his story and the process he went through to get over such a thing, but I don't think he actually got over it. However, he was successful in painting a signifcant picture in my head, one that is very complex and one with many meanings. This poem can be looked at in a variety of ways. We can look at the kililng as very vulgar, wrong and sinful, or we can look at it as a lesson learned, or we can look at the poem as a warning to avoid such issues for our own sake.