Exploring Thomas Hardy's 'The Man He Killed'

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Trevor Millum
Exploring Thomas Hardy's 'The Man He Killed'
Main Subject
Key stage
Category
Poetry: Anthology poetry
Resource type
Worksheet
Teaching ideas
Author
Thomas Hardy
Time period
Post-1900

An engaging set of pre-reading activities to introduce GCSE English Literature anthology students to Thomas Hardy's poem, 'The Man He Killed'. Includes a range of tasks to support students' analysis of the language used, and prediction task, a creative writing activity and supporting teaching notes and exemplars. Could also be used for unseen poetry preparation.

An example task from the resource: 

Make notes on the following areas of the poem:

  • the use of personal pronouns – how many there are, how they are juxtaposed;
  • the punctuation, especially the dashes – the amount, variety and effect;
  • the vocabulary choices – length of words, simplicity/difficulty of words;
  • the ‘but’s and ‘if’s – (Had he   We should have   although   perhaps   if   But)
  • the simple words that express his effort to explain things to himself (because   Just so   of course).

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