ICSE Class 9 Poems and Short Stories The Cold Within (James Patrick Kinney)

SYNOPSIS

‘The Cold Within’ is written by James Patrick Kinney. Kinney has clearly pointed out the lack of compassion and warmth in society. He has written this poem in the 1960s in order to address discrimination.

Trivial issues are responsible for discrimination among people and lead to inequality.
This poem is like a mirror to society, and it reflects how society has degenerated. Every individual in society is equal to the other. There should not be any difference in individuals on the basis of colour, language, caste, creed, class, financial status or any other reason. 
Kinney was keen to promote equality and create awareness about discrimination. This poem is a direct comment on the absence of humanity. People are not willing to take trivial efforts for other people only because of the differences and prejudices that they have in mind.

The poet was turned down by several publications for being too controversial. His son Timothy Kinney, who is the copyright owner of his poems, has published them.

This incident happens on a night when the weather is extremely cold. There are six humans sitting around an extinguishing fire with a stick of wood in hand. This is the background from which the poem is written. The fire which can save them from the biting cold is about to die due to lack of fuel. This is a silent appeal to the group to help each other. In order to stay alive, they need to fuel the fire with the stick of wood they possess.

The first person who has a wooden stick is not willing to put it in the fire because she is a white lady who does not want a black person to benefit by sacrificing her wooden stick. This is an example of discrimination on the basis of colour. Silly prejudice has blinded the woman as she does not realise that she herself is also in need of the fire in order to keep herself alive.

The next man thinks about putting his log of wood into the fire but notices that the person across him does not belong to his religious community. This is an illustration of another prejudice. Thus, this thought stops him from putting his stick in the fire. Religious intolerance has led this person to become insensitive towards his and others’ needs.

The third person is a poor man who sits in ragged and torn clothes. He is feeling colder than the others and therefore gives his coat a hitch. He does not intend to give away his log of wood as a rich person sits across him. He thinks that rich people don’t deserve benefits as they are idle and inconsiderate towards the poor. He is adamant and does not realise that by not sharing his wood, he will bring about his own death as without fire nobody will be able to survive in the severe cold.

The next person was the rich man who was thinking about his wealth. He exhibits discriminatory behaviour by not putting his wood in the fire. He thinks that the poor are lazy and do not work hard. He is greedy and proud of his own riches. He wishes to share neither his wealth nor his wood with the poor whom he considers to be aimless. He prefers to die in the extreme cold with his foolishness instead of helping the others.

The person sitting next to the rich man is the black-skinned man. He is full of revenge. Here, there is a change of situation being displayed as the victim becomes the abuser. The black man could have behaved rationally, but as he faced discrimination, he decides to give back. He is also not willing to put his wood in the fire in order to comfort the white lady. He has a chance to take revenge on the whites. Therefore, he chooses to not put his stick in the fire. The spark of human kindness has died in him. He chooses to die himself along with the others by letting the fire extinguish.

The last person sitting in this hopeless group was an opportunist. He was waiting for the others to take initiative instead of himself doing something worthwhile and setting an example. The poet calls this group ‘forlorn’ which means hopeless and helpless. This also gives an idea about their fate. The last person also continues the same thinking of foolishness like everyone else. He does not want to give his wood as nobody else has given theirs for him. He is not interested to take the initiative and therefore does not put his stick in the fire. It is a very sad situation that he is not willing to put his log of wood into the fire as nobody else has put it for him. He accepts to hold his stick along with hatred and malice rather than saving others and his life.

Finally, the poet concludes the poem by mentioning that the log each held in their hands has invited death. In the end, the fire extinguishes and everybody dies. Each person is responsible for this situation. They still possessed their unused stick of wood indicating that their prejudices and hatred was of more importance than the life of others. This is an illustration of human sin. The final line of the poem says that these people did not die because of the freezing cold but because of the hatred and malice they had for others. It was the coldness in their souls that led them to their death. Each one was without any trace of the human spirit.

The poem follows a rhyming pattern. In each stanza, the second line rhymes with the fourth line. Therefore, the rhyme scheme is abcb.

Figures of speech such as Alliteration, Personification and Antithesis are used.

Alliteration is the close repetition of consonant sounds in a line for better narration.
Example: 
In bleak and bitter cold

Personification is used when abstract ideas are compared to human qualities.
Example: 
Their logs held in death’s still hands

Antithesis is a statement contrasting two things. 
Example: 
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

Short Answer Questions

1. What coincidence has happened?
   Ans. Six humans were trapped with each other by coincidence in the bitter cold and were facing unfavourable conditions.
   
   
2. Why are the six humans sitting around the fire?
   Ans. The poet has referred to six humans who are caught by chance in the extreme cold. They are sitting around the fire because it is critically cold and they need to keep themselves warm.
   
   
3. What does each human possess? What does it signify?
   Ans. Each human possesses a stick of wood which is addressed as a 'log of wood' in the poem. This is the fuel for the extinguishing fire. Everyone needs to put their log in the fire in order to stay alive for more time. This is the only way for their survival in the biting cold conditions.
   
   
4. Who is sitting across the white lady?
   Ans. A black-skinned person is sitting across the white lady.
   
   
5. What is the thought process of the man from a church for not fueling the fire with his stick?
   Ans. The man from a church notices that the person sitting across him is not of his religious community. This stops him from putting his stick of wood in the fire. He does not wish to favour someone who is not from his religion. An example of discrimination on the basis of religion is portrayed here.
   
   
6. What is the poor person’s reason for not putting the log of wood into the fire?
   Ans. The poor man sits beside the rich man. He thinks if he puts his stick of wood in the fire, it will warm the rich person also. The rich are idle and inconsiderate in the views of the poor person. He does not want to help the rich, and therefore, he holds on to his log of wood.
   
   
7. Who was revengeful?
   Ans. The black-skinned man sitting across the white lady is revengeful.
   He was discriminated against on the basis of colour, and now it is time to revert for this discrimination.
   
   
8. What was the last person’s ideology for not putting his stick in the fire?
   Ans. The last person is an opportunist who will offer help only if he will gain something from the situation. He does not want to take the initiative. Since no one else offers his log to support the dying fire, he also steps back.
   
   
9. What does the log symbolise?
   Ans. Six humans are sitting around a dying fire in extremely cold conditions. Each of them possesses a stick of wood which is addressed as ‘log’. It symbolises the negative attitudes or prejudices of the people present around the fire. They are so obsessed with their negativity that they refrain from using their log to save their own lives.
   
   
10. What is proof of ‘human sin’?
    Ans. The dying fire around which six humans were sitting was in need of fuel. The people did not put their logs in the fire as they had malice and hatred towards others. This is human sin.
    
    
    

Long Answer Questions

1. Justify the title of the poem ‘The Cold Within’.
   
   OR
   
   Do you feel the title of the poem ‘The Cold Within’ is appropriate? Explain your answer.
   Ans. The title of the poem ‘The Cold Within’ is symbolic of the lack of warmth and compassion in human beings. Six humans are caught against their will in bleak and bitter cold, but none of them uses the wooden stick each one has due to racism, envy, arrogance, revenge and greed. The cold is bleak bitter because these humans are not warm or friendly with one another. There is no hope to survive. They are so cold from inside that they do not realise that by not helping others, they themselves will perish. The black and white, the rich and poor, all are guided by animosity against each other. The black man practises racism and is filled with revenge. The rich man considers the poor to be lazy and shiftless; however, the poor man thinks that the rich man is idle and unworthy. Their cold-heartedness invited death in the end, and they die with their logs held tight in their hands. Thus, the title is appropriate that it is the coldness inside their heart that has caused their death and not the coldness in the atmosphere.
   
   
2. Explain the character traits of the white lady and the black-skinned man’s reaction to it.
   Ans. The white lady discriminated against the person sitting across the fire on the basis of colour. She is a racist. She saw that the person sitting across is a black-skinned person. She did not intend the black person to benefit from her wooden stick, and hence, this thought stopped her from putting her log into the fire. The black man, however, was the victim of discrimination. He has been facing bigotry for centuries. He desired to take revenge for the injustice done to him. He did not put his log of wood into the fire and thus took his chance to get back at the white lady. Both of them have failed to realise that their prejudices will lead to their death. They chose to die instead of helping each other to survive.
   
   
3. How has this poem illustrated religious discrimination?
   Ans. Six humans were trapped with each other on a severely cold night. The second person in this group has religious prejudice. Usually, no religion teaches a man to differentiate people on the basis of religion. But here, this man is intolerant of another man who is not from the same church. It prevents him from offering his log so that it may not benefit the man who belongs to another religion. The second man has failed to realise that walking on the path of his prejudice will also lead him to his own doom.
   
   
4. What feelings prevented the rich and poor men from offering their logs of wood?
   Ans.  Six people were sitting around a fire on a cold winter night. Each one has a log of wood to fuel the fire. However, their prejudices did not allow them to do so. The third person in this group was the poor man who sat in torn clothes. He did not have warm clothes to keep himself warm. He gave a jerk to his torn clothes in order to protect himself from the biting cold. He did not put his wooden stick in the fire as he had hatred towards the rich man sitting beside him. There is an economic prejudice which fills the poor man with hatred and jealousy for the rich man. He thinks that the rich are idle and unworthy, so he does not put his log into the fire. Whereas the rich man considers the poor to be lazy and inefficient. He thinks he needs to keep his wealth safe from poor people. He does not want to warm the poor using his log of wood, and hence, he chooses to keep his log of wood with himself.
   
   
5. What were the ideologies of the last man in this group?
   Ans. In the poem ‘The Cold Within’, the poet is trying to place an illustration of the prejudices of humans which stop them from helping others. The last person in the group is addressed as an opportunist by the poet. He was not willing to take initiative.  He wanted to take efforts only if he would get something in return. He was not willing to offer help as he did not get it from anyone else in the group. He did not belong to the ethnic group but he decided to act only if he gets any benefit. Therefore, he stepped back and put his log in the fire as none of the others had put theirs.
   
    
6. Why does the poet address it as a ‘forlorn group’?
   Ans. The group of six people that the poet mentions here is caught in bad weather and is cut off from the rest of the world. Their chances of survival depend on their action of keeping the fire alive by using a piece of wood. Each one possesses a stick of wood. But these people have some deep-rooted prejudices which they are not ready to let go. They are not willing to help each other leave behind the hatred and revenge. They do not understand that it might lead to their own demise. The word ‘forlorn’ means very sad and abandoned or lonely. Hence, the poet mentions the group as forlorn as they never think about others. They are self-centred people who are not ready to give up ill-feelings.
   
   
7. Is this situation related to current society? Elaborate.
   
   OR
   
   What message is the poet trying to convey through the poem?
   Ans. The poet has ironically described the situation of society through the poem. He has also specified the behaviour and ideologies of the people. The six humans who are sitting around an extinguishing fire represent the whole human race. The social issues in society are because of the prejudices which everyone carries in their hearts. The poem gives us a clear message. We should rise above petty differences, racial bias, apathy and religious intolerance. If we keep the hatred alive in our hearts, it will eventually lead to our own destruction. The poet justifies that it is futile to be so selfish, to be so revengeful or to be so intolerant. We need to accept everyone with open arms and warmth rather than being cold with them. It will make our survival easy and we can try for a better tomorrow. The poem also has a silent message that we are supposed to use the world’s resources and share it with all humans. If we keep discriminating on different grounds, it will lead to a loss for everyone and will not give us a chance to rise and shine.
   
   
8. What is the poet trying to convey from the line ‘Their dying fire in need of logs’.
   Ans. The group of six humans was sitting around a fire on a cold winter night. The fire was extinguishing. It needed fuel to stop it from dying. Each human had a stick of wood. If they put their stick in the fire, it would have kept it going for some more time, and the group might have survived the cold. Instead, they chose to keep the stick with themselves and die because of the hatred and coldness towards another. Here, the ‘dying fire’ is symbolic of the lack of warmth and compassion in the human’s heart. The later part of the line ‘in need of’ is in reference to the efforts that each one needs to take in order to survive, forgetting the negativity. The word ‘dying’ shows that it is a continuous process where the spirit of social relations in the present world is decreasing rapidly.
   
   
9. Explain the line ‘Their logs held tight in death’s still hands’.
   Ans. The six people sitting around a fire in bleak and bitter cold have brought death upon themselves. They did not support the dying fire with the wood it needed due to the ill-feeling they had about other people in the group. This is a clear situation of the world presently where people are not ready to help others due to the negativity in their hearts. When none of them is ready to fuel the fire, it was extinguished and the cold was difficult to survive. Death comes and it is personified to have still hands. Each individual became their own agent of death with their hands stiff, frozen and refusing to act. The fact that they still had their stick of wood suggests that their motive behind retaining it is proof of sin. Thus, by the end, death awaits them and all of them die with the log of wood held tightly which resembles their negativity and darkness.
    
10. Describe the act of human sin in this situation.
    Ans.  The six people die clutching their log of wood tightly in their hands. They meet their death due to the hatred and malice they carried in their hearts. Their prejudices, feeling of revenge, insensitive nature and discrimination invited death not only for others but also for themselves. They did not realise that in the thoughts of not helping others, they will be ruining it for themselves too. Their silly ideologies were more important to them than the lives of themselves and others. Every person sitting around the fire chose not to fuel it with their stick because they did not want others to take advantage of it.
    Discrimination and feeling of revenge had led them to this situation. This gesture is a sign of human sin that even when their cooperation would help them survive, they preferred to die keeping alive their feelings of difference.