An Analysis of The Cold Within by James Patrick Kinney

Below is the poem for your reference and following that is my analysis:

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped by happenstance

In dark and bitter cold

Each possessed a stick of wood--

Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,

But the first one held hers back,

For,of the faces around the fire,

She noticed one was black.

The next one looked cross the ways

Saw one not of his church,

And could not 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 wealth he had in store,

And keeping all that he had earned

From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge

As the fire passed from his sight,

For he saw in his stick of wood

A chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group

Did nought except for gain,

Giving just to those who gave

Was how he played the game,

Their sticks held tight in death's stilled hands

Was proof enough of sin;

They did not die from cold without --

They died from cold within.

Analysis:

To what extent is a self-deprivation that arises from perversity, better than helping multiple people as a consequence of one’s self-preservation? Essentially, is the downfall of everybody better than the amelioration of all, such that one’s riches are saved? It is a battle of materialistic and even solipsistic (as a philosophical term and adjective) character against selflessness. The former is much easier, and the latter is harder, and that dynamic is shown to be ubiquitous in life.

‘The Cold Within’ is a poem about how the segmentation of life and the issues it has brought about, leads to the destruction of all, set in a frigid landscape with only 6 people who each have a log of wood, and a dying fire. Nobody wants to sacrifice their log because of various reasons specific to each person, thus showing that divides lead to baseless hate, but more specifically, cold neglect for everybody around and eventually for oneself. Because, when all six pass away in the end, it is revealed that ‘They did not die from cold without – they died from the cold within.’

The first foray into the poem illumines the structure which amongst many things, displays the ubiquitous thought that possesses all the people, leading them to their detriment. The tempo or rhythm resembles the ticking of a clock, emphasising how time is growing short, foreshadowing the untimely of the six characters, thrown together by coincidence.

The rhyme scheme of ‘ABCB’ stays the same through all eight stanzas. This alludes to how all the six people, from all walks of life, sitting around the fire, are doing the same thing. Rather, how they are all not doing anything in terms of keeping the dying fire alive by each putting in their stick of wood. They may have different reasons - one woman sits defiantly idle and does not throw her log into the fire ‘For, of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black.’; another refuses to act as he ‘Saw one not of his church,’; and all the focus of the rich man is concentrated on ‘keeping all that he had earned, From the lazy, shiftless poor.’ The way the rhyme scheme acts as a ticking clock, supplements the aforementioned points, coalescing to create some tension. It highlights that behind all of their reasonings whether it be religion, race, or wealth, there is a spite and a degree of rapacity. It is selfish, yet each person dies in the end, so of what use was it?

The former two reasonings, in fact, are ironic. They both do not want help everyone, but more importantly, help themselves, because a beam of pure ire is directed at one person. They hate one, and that leads them to ruin everybody including themselves, and so it may be translated as hate for the others and hate for their own selves. This fact also goes to show how people look at everything that is not there, that people desire perfection when it can never be achieved because others will not, or at least should not change themselves to satisfy the gaze of some obscure onlooker. In the poem, this aspect of human nature is shown to be even more foolish, as people hate another for something they did not choose, for the woman does not give her log because there is a black man sat around the fire. But if nobody can choose race, yet everybody looks at it as the first indicator of who the person is in their entirety, it is nothing but folly.

Regardless, the logic differs with each perspective, but it all results with the same ruinous inaction. Thus, the rhyme scheme also reflects this, as despite it narrating multifarious things, it is told in the same way, the same tonality arising from the banality of such stupidity, that always ends in demise. The boat of language that sails through the river of thought, in this case, does not allow the people to see that the seemingly eternal path to the horizon (supposing it represents hope) is cut short by a waterfall, and at the bottom there is an inescapable, cold, and dark pool, with water made viscid by all the despair that accompanied myriad folk descending into it, so that the freezing liquid submerges them, and death welcomes the new souls.

Regardless, the way this poem is able to be of so much more impact with eight stanzas, is how each person is a synecdoche for their own ‘group’. Now, this group may be predicated on religion, wealth, or race - but each person is a part of a collective that the person sat beside them, is not. Two groups mutually dislike each other, and thus a contrast is created. Stanza two, where a white woman does not stoke the fire because a black man is also there, contrasts with stanza six, which is effectively the same case but the opposite. Similarly, stanza four, where a poor man refuses to contribute because ‘why should his log be put to use/To warm the idle rich?’ contrasts the subsequent stanza where a rich man’s sole aim is to keep his money away from the poor. Thus, because this poem is a sort of social commentary on the fractures between people in the world, 60 years ago and today, it serves as a warning that if no change is made, nothing good will befall humanity.

A final thought is the poem also being a critique of the concept of wealth and money. Though, it is based more so on the rich man’s case, the other 5 people also relate to this idea that the poem creates - that man-made concepts of wealth, money, and even materialism have the capability to numb one’s primal instincts to survive. The log represents this wealth, and nobody is willing to sacrifice it which leads to their death. This symbology can be thought of as being ironic, for a log arguably does not have much intrinsic value, yet, because of the fact that it belongs to someone, because it is theirs, it suddenly gains value and is now worth everybody’s life.

Another way these concepts are critiqued, is by talking of how society judges an entire person’s worth, based on their economic situation. If there is a dearth of money, they are undesirable. If there is an excess of money, would they then be good? Well the the poor man in the poem wonders why he must use his log ‘to warm the idle rich’? and so the rich man is also equally undesirable. And, indeed it is the case because they follow an endless tautology of ill-formed judgement, that is such a big part of everybody’s life, in today’s world resulting in shallow observations that are not even binary, but seemingly unary can be made based on it, it highlights the poverty within both men, and amongst people. The emotional poverty - a lack of the ability to understand that there is a place beyond green bills and gold, where many others have built their worth. And, it is this destitution of the soul, that leads to the death of the six people.