The Full Text of “The Cold Within”
The Full Text of “The Cold Within”
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“The Cold Within” Introduction
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“The Cold Within” Summary
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“The Cold Within” Themes
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Prejudice, Resentment, and Selfishness
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-32
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Sin and Salvation
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-32
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Cold Within”
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Lines 1-4
Six humans trapped ...
... the story's told. -
Lines 5-8
Their dying fire ...
... one was black. -
Lines 9-12
The next man ...
... stick of birch. -
Lines 13-16
The third one ...
... the idle rich? -
Lines 17-20
The rich man ...
... lazy shiftless poor. -
Lines 21-24
The black man's ...
... spite the white. -
Lines 25-28
The last man ...
... played the game. -
Lines 29-32
Their logs held ...
... the cold within.
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“The Cold Within” Symbols
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The Men
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 5-28
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The Fire and the Logs
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-32
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“The Cold Within” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “bleak,” “bitter”
- Line 3: “stick”
- Line 4: “so,” “story's”
- Line 5: “fire”
- Line 6: “first”
- Line 7: “For,” “faces,” “fire”
- Line 21: “black,” “bespoke”
- Line 22: “sight”
- Line 23: “stick”
- Line 24: “spite”
- Line 25: “group”
- Line 26: “gain”
- Line 27: “Giving,” “gave”
- Line 28: “game”
- Line 31: “didn't die”
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Antithesis
Where antithesis appears in the poem:- Lines 31-32: “They didn't die from the cold without / They died from the cold within.”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 2: “In bleak and bitter cold.”
- Line 4: “Or so the story's told.”
- Line 8: “He noticed one was black.”
- Line 12: “The fire his stick of birch.”
- Line 13: “The third one sat in tattered clothes.”
- Line 14: “He gave his coat a hitch.”
- Line 16: “To warm the idle rich?”
- Line 20: “From the lazy shiftless poor.”
- Line 22: “As the fire passed from his sight.”
- Line 24: “Was a chance to spite the white.”
- Line 26: “Did nought except for gain.”
- Line 28: “Was how he played the game.”
- Line 30: “Was proof of human sin.”
- Line 32: “They died from the cold within.”
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Irony
Where irony appears in the poem:- Lines 3-4: “Each one possessed a stick of wood / Or so the story's told.”
- Line 5: “Their dying fire in need of logs”
- Lines 13-20: “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 the wealth he had in store / And how to keep what he had earned / From the lazy shiftless poor.”
- Lines 31-32: “They didn't die from the cold without / They died from the cold within.”
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Rhetorical Question
Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:- Lines 15-16: “Why should his log be put to use / To warm the idle rich?”
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“The Cold Within” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Happenstance
- Church
- 'Cross
- Birch
- Tattered
- Hitch
- Idle
- Shiftless
- Bespoke
- Spite
- Forlorn
- Nought except for gain
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “Six humans trapped by happenstance”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Cold Within”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Cold Within” Speaker
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“The Cold Within” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Cold Within”
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More “The Cold Within” Resources
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External Resources
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More Kinney Poems — Check out more work written by James Patrick Kinney.
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Kinney's Character — Read an informative interview with the poet's son, Timothy, which talks about Kinney's life and philosophy.
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Poetry and the Civil Rights Movement — Check out more poems that formed part of the battle for social justice in mid-20th-century America.
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The Story Behind the Poem — Read about the poem's unusual history, as told by the poet's son.
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