Poem 2: The Cold Within (Workbook Answers)

Treasure Trove

Poem 2
The Cold Within

Extract 1

Answer 1: The figure of speech used is Alliteration. The adjectives 'bleak and bitter' define 'cold'. The coldness of the surroundings is compared to the coldness in the hearts of the six people, because they were not friendly to one another.

Answer 2: The people referred to here are the six people who are trapped in a cold place by some accident. They need logs to renew the fire to protect themselves in the cold.

Answer 3: The 'first one' is a prejudiced white woman who hates people of other races. The 'next man' is a religious fanatic and a bigot who hates people not belonging to his religion.

Answer 4: The first one held back her log. She does this because she was a racist. She didn't want the black man to be saved by the warmth provided by her log.

Answer 5: Literally, this line refers to the fire that is dying and needs to be kept alive with the use of a log.
Metaphorically, it can be understood as the fire of compassion in their hearts, that is dying.

Extract 2

Answer 1: The expression 'tattered clothes' refers to old and torn clothes. This expression symbolises that the man was poor and did not have proper clothes to cover himself in the cold.
The third one gives his coat a hitch to protect himself from the cold.

Answer 2: The 'third one' is a poor man. He is envious of the rich man. He is prejudiced and thinks that rich people are lazy people who exploit the poor. Therefore, he doesn't want to give his log to light the fire.

Answer 3: The rich man's mind is preoccupied with the thought of keeping his wealth safe from the poor man. It reflects his class bias and hatred for the poor.

Answer 4: For a long time, the black people were the slaves of the white people. The black people were mistreated and tortured by the white masters. The black man is filled with the feelings of revenge against the white people for their cruelty.

Answer 5: The lines refer to the black man. He wanted to take revenge against the white people, who had committed countless atrocities on the black people. He wanted to make the white people suffer in the cold, to get his revenge.

Extract 3

Answer 1: The phrase 'forlorn group' is an example of Oxymoron, i.e. pair of contradictory terms. This phrase means that the people were in a group but they were sad and lonely.

Answer 2: The poet is referring to the selfish game of give and take. The last man helped others only if he got something in return. He did not see any benefit in saving the lives of the people with him. So, he didn't put the log into the fire.

Answer 3: The six people died because they did not want to help one another, so they did not put their logs into the fire. It shows their hatred, prejudice, and discrimination caused their death.

Answer 4: The people were cold inside because of their bigotry and prejudice. the poet says that they could have saved themselves if they put the log into the fire, but they didn't do that because of their cold heart. So they died not because of the cold weather outside but because of the coldness inside their hearts.

Answer 5: The message that the poet tries to convey is that the discriminatory attitude and the hatred that the humans have, is self-destructive. Humans will kill one another because of this hatred and the world will come to an end.