14th November 2018
Notice of motion.
The Hon. MARK PEARSON (11:06): I move:
(1)That this House commends the works of Thomas Hardy, poet and author who:
(a)was born near Dorchester in 1840 into a stonemason’s family; and
(b)became renowned for his poetry and novels critiquing the social mores of Victorian and Edwardian England.
(2)That this House notes that Thomas Hardy’s poem The Man He Killed:
(a)reflects upon the senselessness of two strangers engaging in mortal combat on a battlefield; and
(b)for reasons unexplored, and in acknowledgement that had they met outside the arena of war, they would likely have shared a drink together in friendship.
(3)That this House, in honour of the centenary of the World War I armistice:
(a)contemplates the folly and tragedy of sending humans and animals to war; and
(b)considers the words of Hardy’s poem:
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn;
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
“But ranged as infantry;
And staring face to face;
I shot at him as he at me;
And killed him in his place.
“I shot him dead because—
Because he was my foe;
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That’s clear enough; although
“He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps;
Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
No other reason why.
“Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat if met where any bar is;
Or help to half-a-crown.”
Motion agreed to.