Question

The poem 'The cold within' displays a strong message against racial discrimination prejudice racism and envy. How do the ideas conveyed in the poem related to the society today ? Elaborate. word limit 800 words*
The poem is given below:

The Cold Within
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak 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 man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He 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.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their 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.

Answer 1

Explanation:

1). Six humans trapped by happenstance

In bleak and bitter cold.

Each one possessed a stick of wood

Or so the story’s told

Their dying fire in need of logs,

But the first man held his back.

For of the faces 'round the fire,

He noticed one was black.

2). The first person hold back her log as she noticed a black man around the fire . Her discriminatory attitude towards the colour of blacks stops her from sharing the wood. This point outs the grudge and hatred between the whites and blacks.

The above four lines have it all. The first man holds back his log. This is because he found one Black man around the fire. He found it unacceptable to help a Black person by lighting the fire with his own log of wood, even if it were to hurt himself otherwise. This gives a hint to the height of discrimination between the White and the Black — the colour prejudice prevalent in human societies.

The above four lines have it all. The first man holds back his log. This is because he found one Black man around the fire. He found it unacceptable to help a Black person by lighting the fire with his own log of wood, even if it were to hurt himself otherwise. This gives a hint to the height of discrimination between the White and the Black — the colour prejudice prevalent in human societies.[Here, it is worth mentioning that in some collections, the first ‘human’ is mentioned as a White woman. Especially ICSE in their collection ‘Treasure Trove’ has mentioned it as ‘she’ and ‘hers’. So, in these cases, students should write answers taking it as a woman.]

3). 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.

We move on. The second person looked across the fire and saw someone who he knew didn’t share his religious ideology. And just because of that, he can’t bear to give up his log to the communal fire. This is bigotry, which speaks of intolerance to a person because they do not share the same opinions or ideas.

4).He gave his coat a hitch' indicates that his short coat was not adequate to keep him warm in the cold weather. He found that another man in the group was a rich person. Being a poor, he was prejudiced against the rich and thought him to be idle. That is why he decided not to spend his log 'to warm the idle rich'.

5). The rich man's mind was preoccupied with the riches he has in store. He was thinking of how to keep safe what he had earned from the poor who he believes are 'lazy and shiftless'. ... The poet's aim is to disclose these prejudices in our minds against one another.

6). In the poem ‘The Cold Within’, the black man saw a chance to take revenge by hurting the white wo/man by not sharing his wood to keep the fire burning.

Though it was not the poet’s aim to justify his envious feelings here, the same was actually somewhat justified as he was not originally prejudiced against the white. But it was only the urge of taking revenge against the white for the sufferings his race had received at the hands of the white. In the poem we see that the white wo/man rejected to share her/his wood at first as it would help the black man. So it can be said that the black man’s feeling was justified to some extent.

7). Giving only to those who gave Was how he played the game. (The Cold Within, James Patrick Kinney).

8). it means that each of them had a log still in his or her hand suggesting that no one had renounced sinning being unkind for one reason or the other they didn't died because of cold outside they died because of cold within.

Hope its help.