summary of the cold within in 300 words
Answers
James Kinney (1923-1974) was born in a very poor Irish family in Cincinnati and had a very tough childhood. He went to the 10th grade of high school, when he dropped out to take care of his mother. Because of that, he spent his whole life self-educating and in the process, started reading and writing poetry.
After a brief stint with the Civilian Conservation Corps, he joined the army and was stationed in the Philippines as a radio man. On his return to USA, he started writing more extensively. Apart from The Cold Within, which is his best-known piece, he wrote a number of poems that were published in different magazines.
Some of these include OJA Rejected Poem, Of Life’s Sad Moments, I Can’t Change You, This Dream Bemusing, Tomorrow’s Another Day, Never Alone and What is Success. During his lifetime, none of his collections was brought out. Now, all his poems are available on the blog ‘ALL THINGS IF’ run by his wife and son.
“The Cold Within” was written in the 1960s by the American poet James Patrick Kinney. In almost five decades since its publication, the poem has achieved great popularity, appearing in countless church bulletins, websites and teaching seminars, as well as magazines and newspapers.
The poem was first submitted to the Saturday Evening Post, but it was rejected as “too controversial for the time”. Kinney sent it later to Liguorian, a Catholic magazine, which was the first commercial publication to print it. At the outset, the poem was read at an ecumenical council meeting, after which the ministers, priests and rabbis in attendance requested copies of it. They read the poem to their congregations and, before long, The Cold Within became well known throughout the United States.
summary
Simple yet powerful this poem is about the consequences of ‘letting your prejudices control your decisions’. It opens with six people trapped by chance in the biting cold weather and each had a stick of wood. The fire which is keeping them warm is about to die anytime but none is ready to put his/her log to use. The people have different reasons for this. Beginning with the lady who didn’t wanted to save a black man in the group.
The next man saw a person not being of his religion. The third one being poor dressed in rags, envied the rich. The rich man did not want to give anything to the undeserving poor. The black man thought it to be a chance to take revenge on the white people and the last man was full of selfishness who would help only if there is something beneficial in return.
In the end, it appears as the sticks they all held tightly in their hands, stood as the symbol of revenge and hatred. They lacked the aura of humanity. The selfish souls invited the death and they died by the coldness of their hearts.
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