Critical Appreciation of the Poem The Cold Within
Introduction :
The poem entitled ‘The Cold Within’ was written in the 1960s by an American poet known as James Patrick Kinney. This poem appeared in Countless Church bulletins and teaching seminars, as well as magazines and newspapers, including Dear Abby’s coloumn on September 5, 1999. According to the poet’s widow, he (the poet) submitted the poem first to the Saturday Evening Post, but it was rejected as too controversial for the time.
The poem is a pointed comment on lack of warmth and compassion in human relations. In the poem, none of the six persons, who by chance were entrapped together in a bitter cold, agreed to put in use their sticks of wood in the dying fire. The poem through the discriminatory acts of six humans, tries to depict attitudes of the human beings in general.
Thought-Content :
Six persons were trapped together by chance in a biting cold and each of them possessed a stick of wood. They had no escape from that place. Finding the dying fire they sat near it so that they might keep themselves warm. The dying fire was the only hope of their survival. But due to having their own reasons, none of them tried to fuel the dying fire with his own stick of wood.
The first man did not want to give up his stick as it would save the black man’s life, whose face he had seen in the light of the fire. The second man held back his stick as one of them he had noticed, did not belong to his religion. The third man who was very poor and wore the tattered clothes, held back his stick thinking that it should not be applied to save the life of the rich man.
He was full of bitterness and hatred for the rich man. The fourth man was a rich man. He held back his stick to keep his wealth safe from the undeserving poor persons. The fifth one was a black man. He seemed to be full of hatred for the white people. So he decided not to add the fuel in the dying fire with his own stick. This was an opportunity to him to hurt the white. The sixth man was very selfish. He did not like to help anyone without any advantage. He liked to help only those who gave first.
On finding that no one in the group was ready to give away his stick, he kept his stick to himself instead of fueling the dying fire. In this way, the differences and prejudices of the six persons led them to their ultimate downfall which was death. They became an easy prey of death not because of the coldness from the outdoors but because of the coldness in their hearts.
Moral of the Poem :
Through the poem, James Patrick Kinney wants to highlight how the man gives into discrimination and prejudices which govern all his thoughts and deeds. By the example of a group of six people sitting around a fire holding a stick each, Kinney allows the reader to know the psyche of each of them. How each of them is prejudiced and holds back his stick which is needed to let the fire go on.
The white hates the black and the rich is contemptuous of the poor. Their hatred is stronger than the genuine need of the hour i.e., to let the fire go on. Ultimately the fire dies and Kinney makes it clear that it was not due to the cold outside, but it was due to the cold within that refrained each of them to use his stick to keep the fire going. The poem conveys the idea that we must tolerate, if not love, one another. We should be kind and generous towards our fellow human beings. We should not allow religion, colour, or any other prejudice to become mean, selfish and even self-destructive.
Form and Structure of the Poem :
The poem is parable. It is simple and straightforward. Nothing is complex or mysterious about it. It belongs to the category of narrative poems. The narrative poem tells a story. The first stanza tells the readers of the six persons who are entrapped by chance in biting cold. Each of them held a stick of wood. Each of the six persons has a reason to reveal their prejudices. The eighth and final stanzas become a testmony to their selfish souls. The piece comprises of eight quatrains-four lines per stanza with an approximate abeb end rhyme scheme. The poet uses simple language and structure to ensure the message is not diluted.
Sad and Melancholic Tone of the Poem :
The tone of the poem is sad and melancholic. Indeed it is a tragic and unfortunate happening with those six persons who are accidently entrapped in a freezing cold weather and their dying is in need of logs but even though each of them is clutching a stick of wood, they cannot add the fuel to the dying fire because of their prejudices, differences and selfishness. In fact, it is ironical that they die not because of the coldness from the outside but because of the coldness in their hearts. The tone of the poem is so depressing that one can almost feel the coldness of their hearts that the poet describes.
Diction of the Poem :
In the poem, the poet uses diction to project his point. The line that the poet starts his poem with is ‘six humans trapped by happenstance’. His diction in this line is very important to the overall theme of the poem. By saying ‘six humans’, it is almost as if he is talking about all humans. Another curious use of diction is by saying ‘trapped in happenstance’.
‘Happenstance’ means an event that might have been arranged although it is accidental. This use of diction is important because by saying that it is accidental, yet almost seems arranged, gives the reader a sense that they are supposed to be there. The fact that he says they are trapped suggests that they do not want to be in the situation, but they can not escape.
The Use of Imagery and Symbols :
The poet has made a skilful use of visual imagery to engage the reader. There are following examples of visual imagery :
- ‘In dark and bitter cold.’
- ‘The dying fire.’
- ‘The first man held his back. ’
- ‘He noticed one was black.’
- ‘The third one sat in tattered clothes.’
The poet has made the use of symbols throughout the poem which is almost self-explanatory. The log of wood which each one is holding, suggests sin. It becomes clear that if logs are added to the dying fire it will mean helping out someone other than one’s ownself. If the logs are held back, as indeed they are, it means holding on to the sins even beyond death. Each man’s prejudice—envy, greed, revenge, spite, intolerance—is thus symbolically represented by the stick of wood in each hand. The ‘cold within’ is a metephor for lack of warmth, hard¬heartedness, self-centredness, and inability to reach out to others.
The Use of Figures of Speech :
The poet has used the figure of speech personification in the following line : ‘Their logs held tight in death’s still hands. ’
‘Death’ has been personified here by putting an apostrophe and ‘s’ in death. It helps dignify the seriousness of the situation as if death was leading the people on, wanting them to come.
The poet has used the figure of speech oxymoron in the following line : ‘The last man of this farlorn group.’
The poet has used alliteration in the following lines :
- ‘In bleak and bitter cold.’
- ‘For of the faces round the fire.
Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers