“The Cold Within” is a poem written in the 1960s by American poet James Patrick Kinney. This is a summary of the poem. This poem is a little challenging to understand, so I have simplified it down for each stanza. In this poem, six humans were trapped in the cold by happenstance and all of them had a piece of wood which could have been put to use to save the dying fire of love. The cold was bleak and bitter which in turn forced them to depend on each other to survive. But because they were extremely blinded by the hate, prejudices, sins, cold heartedness, and rivalry for each other, something truly terrible happened.
1st stanza
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.
The 1st quatrain symbolises that 6 humans that represented all of humankind were trapped in a bleak and bitter cold place, by happenstance. Happenstance means that the event was accidental, although it seemed to be pre-arranged. The cold forced them to depend on each other. They all possessed a stick of birch that would later symbolise their sins.
2nd stanza
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 second stanza informs us that a lady held her stick back because she suffered from the prejudice of racism. She didn’t want to save the black man that she saw the face of around the fire, by burning her stick. She was truly blinded by her hatred for another race.
3rd stanza
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 3rd stanza was about a man who could not renounce his stick, because he suffered from bigotry. He saw another human that didn’t believe in the same religion as him, and decided to keep his stick back. This stanza also informs us that the stick that everyone held was from a birch tree.
4th stanza
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 4th stanza is about a poor man who wanted to keep everything he possessed to himself and not share it with the lazy and idle rich. This shows us his prejudice of social status. He also gives his coat a hitch to symbolise shielding everything to himself.
5th stanza
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 fifth stanza is about a very rich but stingy man. He was just sitting back and thinking on how to keep his wealth from the ambitionless poor. He suffered from the prejudice of social status as well. But he additionally lacked generosity since he didn’t want to share his wealth and money with the ones who needed it desperately.
6th stanza
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 6th standard summarises a black man who suffers from the prejudice of racial discrimination. He does not want to renounce his stick of birch to save the white. He only wants to hurt the white. That’s what the line “was a chance to spite the white” means.
7th stanza
The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
The last man of this forlorn group was extremely selfish. A forlorn group means that even though 6 humans have gathered together around the dying fire, they were very divided, distant and lonely. But the last man wasn’t ready to give his stick because nobody else had given it up. That was how he played the game of life, by giving only to those who gave. Nought means nothing in this context.
8th Stanza
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.
When the fire died, it took the lives of the six people with it. Deaths still hands means that the humans were holding the sticks in their hands until the point where death decided to take them. This stanza symbolizes that the cold outside was slowly killing them, but since they didn’t renounce their sticks (or sins), to help the dying fire of love grow, it was the cold-heartedness, or hatred within them that actually ended their lives. That’s what the lines “They didn’t die from the cold without. They died from the cold within.” represent.
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This was the whole summary stanza by stanza for this poem. Thank you for reading the summary and hope that it helped you.
