The cold within summary
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Six humans trapped by happenstance in black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs, the first woman held hers back;
for on the faces around the fire, she noticed one was black.
The next man looking ‘cross the way saw one not of his church,
and couldn’t bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes; he gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store,
and how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight,
for all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain,
giving only to those who gave was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.
--James Patrick Kinney
Summary of the poem " Cold Within "
There was a group of six people who met by chance and were trapped in a cold and bleak weather .
Each one had a piece of log of wood in their hand and they had a dying fire in front.
Anyone , if would have gave the log to the fire , then they would have saved the fire and could have survived the weather .
However their hearts were cold and they showed lack of human feeling to one another.
The first woman refused to give the log because she had racial bias and noticed a black face in the group.
The second man saw no one from his Church.
The third man was poor and he did not want to serve the rich.
The rich thought not to offer the log for the idle poor.
The fifth man was black and he wanted to take revenge on the white.
The sixth man did not give unless he has been given too .
These group completely were dominated by their prejudices and they had a cold heart.
It was this coldness that resulted in their death rather than the cold weather .
We should remember " Love thy neighbor as thyself ".