Question

opinion based questions on the poem The Cold Within by James Patrick Kinney

Answer 1

In the first stanza of the poem "The Cold Within', the narrator tells us that there are six people who are "trapped" in a cold and dark setting. These six people met coincidentally and each of these people are holding a stick.

These people are hurdled around a fire that is about to die and is in dire need of some extra wood. The first man sits and looks around him and decides on the fact that he doesn't want to put his wood in the fire simply because there's a black man sitting right accross from him.

In other words, racism is therefore preventing him to keep the fire going. Back when the poem was released, it was not published since it was greatly controversial back then.