Both poems “The Laboratory” written by Thomas Hardy and “The Man He Killed” by Ancient Regime, contain death and murder, they both have victims and murderers, they are set in unpleasant places, they are both emotional “While they laugh, laugh at me, I fled to the drear” the repetition in this quote from TL shows the poet is emotional. “I shot him dead because- because he was my foe” the stuttering in the quote shows that he is reassuring himself I was the ‘right’ thing to do.
The woman in TL is planning on killing her lovers mistress because she wants revenge and is upset about the affair, she is planning on poising the mistress to get her lover back “Sure to taste sweetly,-is that poison too?” this quote shows that the woman enjoys the power that the poison gives her.
The soldier in TMHK has killed someone on the battlefield for it was his job but he feels guilty about it “my foe of course he was;”.
The poets attitude to death are different because the woman in TL wants revenge and is excited about killing her lovers mistress but the soldier from TMHK feels guilty and upset for what he did.
The woman in TL feels isolated, we know this from the quote ” Where they are, what they do, they believe my tears flow” this quote makes us empathise with the poisoner as she is upset about the love affair. The woman feels total antipathy towards her lovers mistress.
The man in TMHK is an infantry solider who is very poor “had sold his traps” this shows he had to sell all his belongings to get money to live, he had no other choice he had to join the army for the money.
The woman in TL is wanting to commit murder by poisoning her lovers mistress simply for revenge. The solider in TMHK killed his foe by shooting him in the battlefield. Both are very different murders.
The woman in TL wants to kill her husbands mistress for revenge and she wants her husband back ” And her breast and her arms and her hands should drop dead!” the repetition shows how jealous she is and she is emphasising this by using repetition.
The solider in TMHK kills his foe because it his duty to as a solider “You shoot a fellow down” he had no choice but to shoot or be shot himself.
The victim in TL knows of her lovers wife but carries on with the affair, however she is not aware that the wife knows about her and her lover. The victim in TMHK feels like the solider who murdered him, it was a war that’s what was supposed to happen.
The killer in TL feels no sympathy towards her victim “Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!”, this shows she doesn’t care about the victim and she resents her. However in TMHK the man feels sorry for his victim “my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough;”. “Although” by him saying this we know the solider is unsure, and is trying to reassure.
In TMHK the contrast between the two worlds are in the Inn “By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet”, the other world is on the battlefield “ranged as infantry,”.
The Laboratory is described as a hell “thus devil’s-smithy-” this tells the reader that this is an unpleasant place to be in. However it is also described as an attractive place the poet does this by describing the potions colours, “soft phial, the exquisite blue,”
TL is written in the first person, the poet dose this because he wants you to feel anger towards the mistress “Grind away, moisten” He wants you to be in the womans shoes and try to see it from her point of view, try to make you feel ther feelings and think her thoughts. The effect by using the first person in TMHK is a sense of feeling sorrow for the man and knowing that he really is guilty about this.
In TMHK the poet uses colloquial language “He thought he’d list,.. Off-hand like” he talks like this because he is informal and it may also have something to do with where he comes from. In TL “take all my jewels,” this shows she is demanding and a use of imperative verbs.
Both poets use repetition, in TL the repetition “poison to poison”, “laugh, laugh”, “and her.. and her.. and her” by using repetition the poet is stressing the importance of what needs to be done.
In TMHK he uses repetition because he feeling guilty and sorrow towards the victim and he has reassure himself that it was for the greater good “because – because”.
The soldier in TMHK tries to come to terms with what he has done, he dose this by the use of enjambment “my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although”.
In TMHK the rhythm is broken “That’s clear enough; although” it deliberate interruption to make us pause and think.
In TMHK the soldier uses hyphens to create a pausing effect, this will help the soldier come to terms with what he has done by pausing allowing him to think.
In TL the woman describes how she makes the potion “Pound at thy powder,” this shows that she is eager to make the potion and eager to kill.
In TL the woman uses alliteration ” poison to poison her, prithee?” she uses alliteration to stress the same sounding letters. The use of Onomatopoeia “Grind…… Pound” makes the word sound like the noise.
In TL the woman shows her enjoyment by describing her vials and bottles with lots of rich colours” gold oozings….”Exquisite blue”.
In conclusion both Poems are similar in which they include a murder, both talk about the deaths and they are both emotional in TL”my tears flow” and in TMHK “That’s clear enough all though”. However there are many differences, the murders are different the woman in TL planned the murder and enjoyed planning her revenge, she talk about mixing her potions “Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,” she’s having fun thinking off killing her husbands mistress “Let death be felt”. Where as the solider in TMHK feels guilty about shooting his ‘foe’ and it was something he had to do, it wasn’t his own choice. “no other reason why”. The woman in TL feels no guilt towards killing and could care less, where as the man in TMHK feels the opposite he is guilty and upset about his mistake.
