THE COLD WITHIN by James Patrick Kinney

Written in the 1960s- during the African American Civil Rights movement (1954-1968) .Kinney was

outraged by inhuman discriminatory attitudes at the time and wrote this poem to prompt some serious

soul searching.

How often are we wise enough to rise above our egos?

How foolish are we when we give in to our prejudices?

Its message is relevant even today when we face divisive outlooks in the world that lead to hatred and

violence. The poem is a reminder to overcome our personal demons and be open to the wisdom of

an egalitarian view – an attitude where everyone is considered equal in worth.

Stanza 1

Six humans trapped by happenstance

In bleak and bitter cold. Alliteration

Each one possessed a stick of wood

Or so the story’s told.

Happenstance: by chance

Bleak: offering little or no hope, dim

Bitter: difficult to bear

We open up to a bleak dramatic scene. The poet recounts a tale he has heard, of six persons caught

together in the grip of a severe winter. Each of them probably had a single stick of wood.

Note the poet’s use of the word ‘humans’; he wants to draw attention to the gathering as specific

individuals, rather than as a collective group. They were ‘trapped by happenstance’ implying no escape

from a situation created by chance. The adjectives ‘bleak and ‘bitter’ describing the cold add to the

ominous feeling.

Stanza 2

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.

Dying: here, about to be extinguished

For: here, because

The second stanza cuts into a key character in this story — the dying fire. The group’s prospects of

survival do not look good. In the heart of winter, keeping warm is critical to survival. The fire offers a

chance for salvation if each person would use their respective logs to feed it. The dying fire is a silent

appeal to the group to help themselves by helping each other.

The next verses reveal how the situation unfolds. We find that the first person withheld his log from the

fire only because it would also benefit a black person. This is racism, where there is discrimination

because of a person’s race. The man will not even warm himself if someone he looks down upon

— simply because of skin color — will gain.

Stanza 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.

Cross: here, across

Birch: a tree

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 common fire. This is

bigotry, which speaks of intolerance towards a person because they do not share the same opinions or

ideas.

Stanza 4 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?

Tattered: torn or ragged clothing

Hitch: here, pull with a jerk

Idle: lazy

The focus now shifts. Here is a person who seems poor. His tattered (old and torn) clothes in the cold

weather hint at poverty. He perhaps felt the cold more than the others as we notice that ‘he gave his coat

a hitch’ —adjusting it closer to his body to get some warmth from the inadequate clothing. But here too is

a dead end. We see that he is a victim of classism — or discrimination based on social or economic class

— considering those favorably placed than him to be ‘idle’. He is defensive and in his eyes, the rich do

not deserve his meager ration and he will not part with his stick.

Stanza 5

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

Shiftless: lacking initiative, unambitious

At cross purposes, we find the next exhibit of apathy (absence of emotion or enthusiasm) — the rich man.

Caught up hoarding his riches in his head, he is oblivious to reality. Greed blinds him as he selfishly, in an

illegal, underhand manner, makes schemes to keep his wealth to himself and not share it with anyone.

He even miserly holds onto his stick, keeping it from the poor whom he perceives as aimless and lazy.

Stanza 6

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.

Bespoke: point to, indicate

Spite: hurt, injure

Even the victim becomes an abuser here. We know the black person had experienced racism. Revenge

for the atrocities he had faced from the white people was the only thing on his mind. One wonders if he

had already resigned himself to dying — he saw ‘the fire pass from his sight’— he realized that the fire

was fast getting spent. But the spark of human kindness had died in him and literally too, he chose to let

the group’s fire die. He would perish, but he would take the others he hated, down with him as well.

Stanza 7

The last man of this forlorn group

Did nought except for gain.

Giving only to those who gave

Was how he played the game. metaphor

Forlorn: hopeless

Nought: nothing

For the first time in the poem ‘The Cold Within’, the poet foreshadows the fate of the group by finally

describing the bunch as ‘forlorn’ or hopeless. Until then, the poet had reserved judgement, allowing the

reader instead to examine each individual in turn and derive his/her own conclusion.

Unfortunately, we find that the last person also perpetuates the vicious circle of inertia. There is a word for

this person’s attitude — and it is not in the English language. ‘Mahmilapinapatai’, is a word in the

indigenous South American language of the Yaghan people. It refers to a look shared between people,

where each hopes that the other will do something that all of them want, but none are willing to initiate. In

giving just to get, the last person played a losing move in the ‘game’ — a metaphor for the game of Life.

Stanza 8

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands personification

Was proof of human sin.

They didn’t die from the cold without

They died from the cold within.

Cold without: cold weather

Cold within: cold heartedness, lack of warm/loving feelings

We witness the grim aftermath of the group’s rigidity of spirit. Death comes and it is personified here with

stilled hands. Each individual became their own agent of death — their hands frozen stiff with their refusal

to act. The fact that each of them still possessed their firewood when they died suggests the twisted

motives in retaining their firewood — proof enough of sin. The final lines abound with Irony. We realize it

was not the cold weather outside that really killed the group after all, it was the cold in their hearts, the

lack of warm human spirits — the cold within.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF “COLD WITHIN”?

By the phrase “the cold within”, the poet means the coldness of the hearts — the lack of warm human

spirits of the six persons who gathered around the dying fire in that winter evening.

FIGURES OF SPEECH USED IN THE POEM:

1. Alliteration: Repetition of similar consonant sounds at the start of adjacent words.

"In bleak and bitter cold".

the repetition of ‘b’ in ‘bleak’ and ‘bitter’

2. Metaphor: An indirect and implied comparison of 2 different things where there is a point of similarity.

"Giving only to those who gave

Was how he played the game".

In the above lines, human life is compared to a game. The last man would give something to one who

could give him something in return. This is how he played the game of life.

3. Personification: The projection of characteristics which belong only to humans onto inanimate

animals, objects, forces of nature, and deities.

"......Their logs held tight in death’s still hands"

the poet has personified death into a human with a still hand.

The title of the poem, 'The Cold Within' is suggestive of the central theme or

message of the poem and thus is just and apt. What is the message in the poem?

MESSAGE

In the poem The Cold Within, the poet James Patrick Kinney has a strong message for mankind. You

may say: “Unity is strength” or even “Live and let live”. Regardless of how you express it, it's all about the

need to appreciate everyone and everything in this world with a larger heart. The poem encourages the

reader to give up being selfish and self centered and to develop a patient, more accepting, tolerant

behavior towards fellow humans.

Differences in caste, colour, creed, class, religion must not dominate or supersede our one major

common factor, humanity. We are all humans before we are any thing else. Through the poem, an effort

has been made to build a human connection among humans and to give that connection importance

above differences of any kind.

HOW DOES THE POEM RELATE TO THE SOCIETY TODAY?

Yes, the poem 'The Cold Within' is very relevant even in the present day world. ... The poet here conveys

the message that people should not discriminate among themselves for petty issues like class, caste,

religion, colour or ethnicity for their own good.

WHY DID NONE OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE POEM, SHARE THEIR PIECE OF WOOD?

None of the characters in the poem "The Cold Within" shares the wood they have because

of their prejudiced outlook. Their prejudice is based on the race, religion or other discriminating factors

like financial status. They lack acceptance of others and are hence not able to overcome their

differences.

WHO IS THE OPPORTUNIST IN THE POEM?

An opportunist is a person who seeks opportunity for his own advantage in any situation and in any

circumstance. So, in James Patrick Kinney's poem "The Cold Within", the last man of "the forlorn group"

was an opportunist. This is because he only wanted to deal with them who gave him something in return

for his stick.

WHO ARE THE 6 HUMANS IN THE POEM?

The six humans in the poem are trapped together by chance in extremely cold weather. The first person

is a lady who is a racist and she is against black people. The second person has no tolerance or respect

for any other religion but his own. The third was a poor person who felt that the rich were only using the

poor to work for them and get richer. The fourth man was the rich man who was making schemes to keep

his wealth to himself. The fifth was the black man who wanted to avenge the wrong done to his

community. The sixth man has been described as someone who is extremely selfish and will only do

something for someone if he gains out of it.

WHAT WAS THE NEED OF THE HOUR?

The need of the hour simply refers to some need at some point in time. Need of the hour has implication

that it needs to be high priority. Most essential need or requirement. "Need of the hour" refers to the most

recent need or the most pressing need. The need of the hour was to keep the dying fire alive by feeding it

with more logs or else the cold would freeze them all to death. However due to their racist nature, none

gave their logs thus they died due to the cold within and not due to the cold weather outside .

HOW IS THE POEM A SATIRE ON HUMAN NATURE?

The poem The Cold Within by Patrick Kinney is a satire on human nature of discrimination. Through this

poetic parable, the poet criticizes the selfish and prejudiced nature of the entire human race. He attributes

their death to the cold in their hearts, the absence of warm, loving feelings, not to the cold atmosphere

outside.

WHAT ROLE DID PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION, RACISM AND ENVY PLAY IN THE POEM?

In the poem, The cold within, the poet has shown how people are divided all over the world based on

some narrow considerations like racism, religion hatred, class distinction and prejudice. This is

the message that the poet wanted to convey against discrimination, envy and racism in

the poem, The Cold Within. Through the poem and the behavior and thinking of the characters in it, the

message is clearly brought out to the readers that it is absence of empathy, emotions, and feeling of

selfishness, that is responsible for dividing people.

WHAT DOES THE LOG IN EACH HAND SIGNIFY?

In the poem, those people possessed a log of wood each. The log in the poem signifies man's

selfishness, greed , hatred , prejudice , animosity and lack of initiative to share his belonging with others

The entire poem is a metaphor for the prevalent conditions in the contemporary world.

WHAT BROUGHT THE SIX HUMANS TOGETHER?

The "six humans" were brought together by a situation which seems to have been arranged , though it

seems accidental. The bitter cold climate brought the six humans together by chance. They were huddled

by the side of a fire that was on the verge of dying out any moment unless it was fed by the log that each

person held in his hand.