how apt the title no men are foreign for the poem?
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What is the summary of the poem "No Men are Foreign" by James Kirkup?
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The poem details why it is wrong to hate others based on differences such as race, culture, or geography. The speaker goes through points of how all people are similar and part of the brotherhood of man. By the poem's end, the speaker mentions war and how unnatural it is because it is fighting against ourselves.
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DROXONIAN eNotes educator| CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
This poem by James Kirkup begins and ends with the same line, with the repetition serving to emphasize the fact that this is the core message of the poem:
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign.
The subject of this poem is the unity of the human race, despite differences in race, geography or language. All people are "brothers," in that we all walk on the same land and will be buried under it. This comment highlights the poet's point that we are all, ultimately, related, and are all born the same and will die in the same way. Use of language like "uniforms" suggests that even in times of war, the opposing sides would do well to remember that under the uniforms, "a single body breathes."
The poem covers various points of similarity between people from all countries: people have "hands" like ours, they "labour" as we do, and they have "eyes like ours that wake" to see a similar world. Hating other people because they are different, or raising arms against other people, is effectively a condemnation of ourselves: "it is the human earth that we defile."
This poem could be understood as a protest against such issues as racial hatred and warfare, which threaten the peace and safety of human beings in similar ways.