The story “Back to the Round,” by Charles Yale Harrison and the poem “The Man he Killed,” by Thomas Hardy are quite similar. The story is about a group of soldier living in the trench where they are talking about their life. The poem is about a man talking about his dead foe. Since the story and poem both takes place during the period of war, each piece of writing has shown traits that are similar to each other. The story has a similar beginning with the inn and the trenches, their life, and death.
Both the story and the poem have similar beginnings, that would be starting point. The story started off at the trenches and the poem started off at an ancient inn. The story takes place in the trenches. “Different sectors, different names of trenches, different trenches, but always the same trenches, the same yellow, infested earth.” (Harrison 1) This is describing the life of the soldiers and how they met each other through the countless amount of trenches and how much they hate being there. In the poem, he and his enemy met at an old ancient inn. “By some old…show more content… The foe he killed as he reflects on what he did in order to survive. In the story, it talks about the group of soldier’s daily life. “Half a mile from our partly expose trench, hidden in the hollow of a tree, sits a sniper holding an oiled, perfect rifle.” (Harrison 2) This is what the soldiers do during the day while they wait for nightfall. Staying at the same position and making sure none of the enemies will get pass the trenches alive. In the poem, the person talks about his foe’s life. “Was out of work--had sold his traps--” (Hardy 15) He was trying to describe his life when war broke out and how he had no job and was struggling to get money. The story and the poem both talks about their lives or someone else’s life which shows us that life isn’t so happy and easygoing, that it’s a cruel world they live
