The+Target

== =‘The Target’= =Ivor Gurney=

“The Target” is told from the perspective of a soldier who agonises over a man he has killed.

The soldier says that his mother lives in fear of his death, suggesting that it might be better for his mother if he died so that she might at least find some peace in not having to worry about him anymore. The soldier then goes on to contemplate the situation of the soldier that he shot, and remembers that the man he shot is another mother’s son.

The soldier feels that God gives no guidance and does not seem to care. The speaker wonders who “felt the bullet worst” – he questions whether it is better to be the soldier shot than the soldier who did the shooting and has to live with the guilt of taking another’s life. The poem ends in disillusionment, calling the war a “bloody mess indeed”.


 * Useful Quotations & Explanations:**

-**"I shot him, and it had to be one of us! 'Twas him or me. 'Couldn't be helped,' and none can blame me, for you would do the same."** The author (past soldier) says he shot the other soldier in self defence and justifying himself by saying "If you were in my position you would do the same".