Class-9 English (Beehive)

No Men are Foreign (Poem)

Notes

The title- ‘No Men are Foreign’ means that the no men belong to another country. The poet wants
to say that all men are same, all men are equal. He wants to promote the concept of universal
brotherhood. In this poem, the poet wants to tell us that everyone in this world is same. All people,
all men are same – they eat, live, die the same way. Everyone gets the bounties of nature like,
sunshine, land and air in equal measure. We can also say that it is a peace poem.
Detailed Explanation:
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

In these lines, the poet tells his readers that men are not different from each other simply on the
basis that they hail from separate countries. They may fight for the army of this nation or that one,
but underneath the uniform, they are all essentially similar. Your opponent army’s soldiers live
and breathe just as you do. Most fights between the men of one country and another result from
disputes over which piece of land belongs to which nation. However, all the land on earth is the
same. Moreover, every man will have to lie in the earth at one time or the other. That is, all men
have to die and all pieces of land are potential graveyards in that they can occasion a war for their
occupation.

They, too, aware of sun and air and water,

Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.

In this stanza, the poet provides further evidence of the unity of man. He says that those who hail
from countries other than our own also depend, like we do, on sun and air and water for their
survival. They too have seen periods of peace and periods of war. In times of peace, they have had
the assurance of a square meal every day. Just like us, war has been a long winter to them, when
food is scarce and every moment brings with the dread of an approaching famine. They look just
like us and are descended from the same ancestors as we are.
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.

The poet entreats his readers to keep in mind the fact that our opponents sleep and wake just like
we do, and follow the same pattern in life as us. Every human being has an inner resource of
strength that they can use to help their fellow beings. However, that resource can only be unlocked
by following the path of love. Only when we love someone can we stand up for them. That is why
it is absolutely necessary for every man to love his fellow beings without creating divisions
amongst them. Despite the differences between various nations, there is one thing that they all
have in common. The common people live the same kind of life everywhere. Therefore, you can
recognize the presence of that life no matter where you travel in this wide world.

Let us remember, whenever we are told

To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.

The poet protests the efforts of military and religious groups that encourage us to wage wars
against those of other persuasions. The poet believes that those groups are misguiding their
followers. They are asking their followers to hate people without realizing that it is our own
brothers that we must hate. This is a form of self-destruction for the poet. Any hatred that we may
harbor for the human race is tantamount of our betrayal towards the species and our condemnation
of its future. If we kill people of any other nation, we are in fact endangering the human species as
a whole and its survival on earth.

Remember, we who take arms against each other

It is the human earth that we defile.

In this stanza, the poet provides further implications of war. He says that if we, the guardians of
the earth, were to die out as a result of the war, then there would no one left to take care of the
home that our ancestors had passed down to us. We would then have nothing to pass down to our
own future generations.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

In the end, the poet compares wartime with hell. In war as in hell, there is fire and smoke
everywhere. As a result of this, the earth is becoming poisoned. The very air that we breathe is
becoming impure and will not be able to sustain human life for much longer. That is why the poet
encourages us not to wage war on our fellow men thinking they are foreigners and that their
countries are unlike our own.

Poetic Devices in No Men are Foreign:

Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant sound in two or more closely placed words is called
alliteration. The instances of alliteration in the poem are -
Stanza 1 - Body, breathes ‘b’ sound is repeated
Stanza 2 – war’s, winter ‘w’ sound is repeated
Metaphor: Stanza 1 - Uniform refers to the military of different countries
Stanza 2 – wars time is compared to the winter season
Repetition: It is used in the entire poem.
‘Remember’ word is repeated 5 times in this poem.
Refrain: ‘Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign’ is repeated in stanza 1 and stanza
5
Enjambment - running lines of poetry from one line to the next without using any kind of
punctuation to indicate a stop. Instances of enjambment in the poem are as follows-
Stanza 1 – line 2, 3 and 4
Stanza 2 – line 3 and 3
Stanza 3 – line 1, 2, and 3
Stanza 4 – line 1 and 2
Stanza 5 – Line 2 and 3
 Polysyndeton:
This literary device consists in the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially
where some could otherwise be omitted. In this poem, the poet uses the device of polysyndeton
in the 5th line when he writes “ sun and air and water”, repeating the conjunction “and”
unnecessarily.

Transferred epithet:
The poet uses the device of the transferred epithet in the 6th line when he writes the phrase
“peaceful harvests”. It is not the harvests themselves that are peaceful, but peaceful social and
political conditions that prevent a shortage of crops or famine and make harvests possible.

Do the following work in English Notebook:

Reference to the Context.
1. “Beneath all uniforms . ..”
(i) What uniforms do you think the poet is speaking about?

Ans: The uniforms refer to those worn by soldiers belonging to different countries who indulge
in wars and fights.
(ii) How does the poet suggest that all people on earth are the same?
.
Ans: The poet says that all the people are the same in the following ways –
We belong to one human race. We walk on the same earth. Upon death, we will lie in our graves
in the same earth. During peace we all enjoy the bounties of nature. During war and in the winter
season, we all starve due to shortage of food. We all do a lot of labour with our hands. We have
eyes which function in the same way.
2. “...whenever we are told to hate our brothers ...”
(i) When do you think this happens? Why?
Ans: The leaders of any country tell the masses to hate the people of another country. They say
so to fulfil their personal gains and benefits.
(ii) Should we do as we are told at such times? What does the poet say?

Ans: The leaders of any country tell the masses to hate the people of another country. They say so
to fulfil their personal gains and benefits. The poet says that we should not follow them because
when we hate our brothers, we hate and belittle ourselves. When we indulge in wars, we pollute
and render the mother Earth impure by laying dead bodies on it.
Question/Answers
1.What is the central idea of the poem?
The poet believes that war is caused by the false beliefs of people who have ceased to believe in
the essential unity of man. These are xenophobes who believe that a man hailing from a different
country is to be hated and discriminated against. However, the poet assures his readers that man is
just the same everywhere. He experiences the same joys and sorrows and has been descended from
the same ancestors. Therefore, he is justified in asking his readers to do away with xenophobia and
expel it from their minds and hearts.
2. Discuss the two themes of the poem.
Ill effects of xenophobia:
According to the poet, xenophobia or the fear of foreigners is the very basis of war. This fear
leads us to hate our brothers and endanger the future of the human species on the earth. It leads
us to forget that all men are descended from common ancestors and that they share a common
fate. That is why the poet tells his readers to expel xenophobia from their hearts forever.

Unity of man:
The poet goes to great lengths in this poem to show that man is essentially the same everywhere.
He experiences the same joys and sorrows and goes through the same trials and tribulations. He
has seen both war and peace. Thus, he has seen times of bountiful and abundant availability of
food, as well times of food scarcity and famine. This is what common life is constituted of, and
one can find this no matter how far and wide one travel. Therefore, what the poet really wants to
say is that man is united and should remain that way. He should not hate and discriminate among
his fellow beings. Instead, he should love them and stand up for them in their times of need. He
should not wage war. Instead, he should build up a community of mutual respect with those who
hail from different lands than he does.
3. What is the tone of the poem?
The tone of this poem is rather disparaging. Most of the poem is like a warning to the human race
telling them to change their ways. The poet knows that he must show his readers the ultimate effect
of xenophobia to make them realize how bad it can affect them. Therefore, he does not hesitate to
do so.
4. Explain the underlying message of the poem.
The poet is not just teaching us a lesson or warning us about our endangered future. He is also
showing us the contrary picture and giving us a message of encouragement. He is showing what
an easy solution there is to our problems. We must learn simply not to hate, and then our world
will be a better place.