Analysis k1863

What is meant by the quotation "what to him / Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?" in "The Man with a Hoe" by Edwin Markham? What is a summary of the poem "The Man with a Hoe" by Edwin Markham? nspired by a painting by Millet, Edwin Markham wrote “The Man with the Hoe” to draw attention to the plight of those forced into lifelong labor and poverty. He describes a man whose spirit has been broken by toil and compares his hopeless existence with the sacred image in which God supposedly created humanity. The speaker then addresses the rich and powerful who profit from the labor of people like the man with the hoe, predicting that one day the oppressed masses will rise up and sit in judgment over their former oppressors. painting by Millet, Edwin Markham wrote “The Man with the Hoe” to draw attention to the plight of those forced into lifelong labor and poverty. He describes a man whose spirit has been broken by toil and compares his hopeless existence with the sacred image in which God supposedly created humanity. The speaker then addresses the rich and powerful who profit from the labor of people like the man with the hoe, predicting that one day the oppressed masses will rise up and sit in judgment over their former oppressors. and lament on behalf of those in servitude, which gives voice, through one symbolic laborer, to the description of what workers become when yoked to the "wheel of labor" and gives voice to the description of intellectual and spiritual endowments workers are robbed of. The poem then asks "O masters, lords and rulers in all lands" if the broken "shape" of God's "dream" is really what they want to present to God as their own "handiwork." It further asks what they and the future will do when, after "the silence of the centuries," this "Man" rebels to "shake all shores" and to judge those who have stripped him of his mind, strength and humanity. The first stanza gives a description of the one worker who is the symbol for all in servitude--who, in the last stanza, is called "Man" for his Humanity--that says he is weighted, empty, bowed down, burdened. He is also "dead to rapture and despair," grief and hope alike. The "light within his brain" has been blown out. The questions of whose hand made him so and whose breath blew out the light are rhetorically asked. A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, ... Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? (I) The second stanza contrasts this description with one of how God created the "shape" of "Man" that he might "trace the stars," Man being what God "dreamed who shaped the suns." This equates Man, or workers, with the might of suns. The third stanza describes the gulf that separates the burdened, lightless laborer from the angels, saying the "dread shape" of Man "cries protest to God": Man, the shape of humanity betrayed, robbed, made unsanctified, and disowned protests to God.

Is this the Thing ... To have dominion over sea and land; To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the ion of Eternity? Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns (II) The fourth and fifth stanzas are apostrophes addressed to "O masters, lords and rulers in all lands." The stanzas ask if these potentates are proud of their "handiwork" and if they think their handiwork fitting tribute to give back to God. The stanzas further ask how they, now, and how the future, later, will react when this disowned, betrayed humanity abandons silence and rises up in rebellion, then sits in judgement over the "masters, lords and rulers" who broke and battered and betrayed them, who stole the light from them. How will you ... Make right the immemorial infamies, Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? (IV) The latter half of the second stanza is a bit problematic for modern readers. In the phrase "there is no shape more terrible than this," the "shape" is the worker; it is the Man (representing Humanity). He is "terrible" in the sense of something being formidable or powerful (American Heritage Dictionary): the disowned Man after centuries of silent slavery is formidable, powerful. He is "tongued" with cries of protests against the greedy; he is "filled" with warnings about salvation for the soul; he is "packed" with the danger of rebellion waged against the universe. Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns And marked their ways upon the ancient deep? Down all the caverns of Hell to their last gulf There is no shape more terrible than this-More tongued with cries against the world's blind greed-More filled with signs and portents for the soul-More packed with danger to the universe. (II)

How can I describe the man with the hoe from the painting? The painting shows a laborer or farmer in a field, resting for a moment on his hoe. If you glance at the field behind him, you won't envy the backbreaking work he has put into his day. I am going to say that he is not working with your ordinary Home Depot garden hoe, but a solid iron agricultural tool that very definitely will get heavier as the day progresses. But why did Markham pick such an ordinary subject out of the sublime and majestic that would have delighted the well-to-do visitors of art galleries? My guess is that it was shocking in the very same way Gustave Courbet's The Stone Breakers or Burial at Ormans shocked the fashionable Parisian public. It was a world away from Claude Monet's Le Bassin d'Argenteuil with its sailboats on a lovely, placid summer day.

The painter of Man with a hoe wanted, as Courbet wanted, to remind the self-satisfied public of the millions whose lives made the world turn, and perhaps motivate them into reforming action. What Is The Image Of The Man With The Hoe Jean-François Millet’s painting, Man With a Hoe, depicts an exhausted peasant man working in a field. It was meant to highlight the plight of the working class and was considered very controversial at the time. Inspired by this painting, Edwin Markham wrote the poem “The Man with the Hoe.” Markham’s poem describes a hopeless laborer who is treated more like a beast than a human being. nalysis of "The Man with the Hoe" by Edwin Markham Original poem reprinted online here: "The Man with the Hoe" by Edwin Markham Originally read: September 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: Edwin Markham

This poem is an eckphrastic piece based on this painting by Millet.

What the speaker does in the poem is relate the singular image to an expansive one and back to a singular one again -- as though to dig for apparent meaning. "Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans / Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground /The emptiness of ages in his face." already the speaker is going for a very broad rhetoric with general like "centuries" and "emptiness" appropriated to the man in the portrait who is now become more of a symbol for the reader to sympathize with. For the man is, "made him dead to rapture and despair / A thing that grieves not and that never hopes / Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?" Beast of burden. The speaker is adding more and more meaning to his propped up symbol against another symbol of those that "made him" this way. The list of rhetorical questions transforms the symbol into the beast of burden: Who loosened and let down the brutal jaw? Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To face the ion of Eternity? Note how the transformation focuses on the symbol then expands outward to the divine. And note the divine here is used somewhat cynically -- who has dominion over beasts -- man. But who makes a man into a beast -man? Divine?

The rest of the stanza faces the divine, so if heavenly will pushes man back down then "hell" does this: There is no shape more terrible than this -More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed More filled with signs and portents for the soul -More fraught with menace to the universe. The key here is the use of repetition: anaphora of more and dashes to simulate a build up of want. More things is needed, but with more there's greed and menace. And then there is the stanza break, but not a break in the momentum. The break serves as a focusing device with, "What gulfs between him and the seraphim! / Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him / Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?" In one way these lines are trying to find meaning with the man now a beast of burden. Knowledge means nothing to someone meant only to work. And this work is central to progress but with a price, "Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; / Through this dread shape humanity betrayed," with the divine still pushing man down, "Plundered, profaned and disinherited, / Cries protest to the Judges of the World, / A protest that is also prophecy" The last line transitions to the next stanza and places the speaker as a prophet for protesting, "O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, / Is this the handiwork you give to God," Now here the divine is separated into two groups -God's work, and man, taking up the name of the divine's work. And what is presented, "This monstrous thing distorted and soul quenched?" And with the rest of the stanza there's a call to change what is being made with "music and the dream" But note here the stanzas getting shorter and shorter -- the focus and direction is clear. The speaker asks this big rhetorical question, "O master, lords and rulers in all lands,/ How will the Future reckon with this Man?" The previous stanza talked about the present, the ones before that the past, and here we get to see the prophecy through questions, "How answer his brute question in that hour / When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?" Even beasts rebel like angels when pushed with the aftermath being, "When this dumb Terror shall reply to God / After the silence of the centuries?" Silence, dumb, a reply that is not a reply. aEdwin Markham, who has been called “the dean of American poets,” received national fame, and later worldwide fame, when he published “The Man with the Hoe.” It changed his career immediately. The poem consists of forty-nine lines divided into five stanzas of social commentary that focus on America’s working class and their sufferings. It is a striking poem of protest against exploited labor. After viewing French artist Jean-François Millet’s worldfamous painting of a peasant leaning on his hoe, The Man with the Hoe (1862), Markham was inspired to write his poem in 1898. He is reported to have seen the original painting, which had a profound effect on him, in San Francisco. Markham was at a New Year’s Eve celebration when he read the poem to an editor of the San Francisco

Examiner. Shortly thereafter, the poem was published in that paper. Because of its popularity, the poem was translated into many languages and reprinted in magazines, newspapers, and books numerous times. The poem’s success allowed Markham to spend more time writing and lecturing. In regard to the reform movements concerning labor struggles of the time, the poem generated much controversy. The newspapers received many letters regarding “The Man with the Hoe.” The poem was open to different interpretations. Some readers said that the poem was advocating socialism: Some were in of the concept; others were against it. Others said the poem contained a prophetic message that could incite unessential reforms. Still others considered the poem a medium for expressing farmers’ and workers’ grievances. For Markham, Millet’s peasant symbolized the exploited classes worldwide. Markham said that he viewed it as “a poem of hope. a cry for justice.” In the fourth stanza, Markham addresses the “masters, lords, and rulers in all lands.” He interrogates them with an implied sense of optimism: Is this the handiwork you give to God,This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?How will you ever straighten up this shape,Touch it again with immortality;Give back the upward looking and the light;Rebuild in it the music and the dream;Make right the immemorial infamies,Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? Selecting the best way to express his poetic ideas about social and spiritual beliefs, Markham chose blank verse, for it provided the flexibility he needed. As Markham employed language, he made use of several poetic devices, including vivid descriptions, extended metaphors, rhetorical questions, literary allusions, and symbolism. In the first stanza, the reader is given a vivid description of a laborer who has been crushed by years of toil, struggles, and injustices, to the extent that one can visualize the negative effects: “Bowed by the weight of centuries,” “The emptiness of ages in his face,” “on his back the burden of the world.” Markham asks, “Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?” Some other poets have also shown interest in the treatment of humankind. Among them is eighteenth century Robert Burns, who also was a farmer and a poet. In his poem “Man’s Inhumanity to Man,” he writes of the many ills that have befallen humankind: “Man’s inhumanity to man,/ Makes countless thousands mourn.” The second stanza of “The Man with the Hoe” opens with an allusion to the Genesis creation story; Markham refers to humanity as the “Thing the Lord God made and gave/ To have dominion over sea and land.” Markham suggests that humans have lost their position and are no longer held in high esteem, as God intended. Human dignity has been taken away. The “Thing” is the antithesis of the man whom David describes in Psalm 8:4-5: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?/ Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor./ Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands. . . .” Markham continues to focus on some of the negative effects of the “Slaves of the wheel of labor.” He clearly condemns the exploitation of labor. Such conditions

have caused the laborer to have an “aching stoop” and to become devoid of mind and heart. Markham also challenges “the Judges of the World.” In the last stanza, he alludes to changes in the future that may come about as a result of protests and rebellions. Consequently, Markham wants to know how the world will react “When this dumb Terror shall reply to God,/ After the silence of the centuries?” What the speaker does in the poem is relate the singular image to an expansive one and back to a singular one again -- as though to dig for apparent meaning. "Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans / Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground /The emptiness of ages in his face." already the speaker is going for a very broad rhetoric with general like "centuries" and "emptiness" appropriated to the man in the portrait who is now become more of a symbol for the reader to sympathize with. For the man is, "made him dead to rapture and despair / A thing that grieves not and that never hopes / Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?" Beast of burden. The speaker is adding more and more meaning to his propped up symbol against another symbol of those that "made him" this way. The list of rhetorical questions transforms the symbol into the beast of burden: Who loosened and let down the brutal jaw? Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To face the ion of Eternity? Note how the transformation focuses on the symbol then expands outward to the divine. And note the divine here is used somewhat cynically -- who has dominion over beasts -- man. But who makes a man into a beast -man? Divine? The rest of the stanza faces the divine, so if heavenly will pushes man back down then "hell" does this: There is no shape more terrible than this -More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed More filled with signs and portents for the soul -More fraught with menace to the universe. The key here is the use of repetition: anaphora of more and dashes to simulate a build up of want. More things is needed, but with more there's greed and menace. And then there is the stanza break, but not a break in the momentum. The break serves as a focusing device with, "What gulfs between him and the seraphim! / Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him / Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?" In one way these lines are trying to find meaning with the man now a beast of burden. Knowledge means nothing to someone meant only to work. And this work is central to progress but with a price,

"Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; / Through this dread shape humanity betrayed," with the divine still pushing man down, "Plundered, profaned and disinherited, / Cries protest to the Judges of the World, / A protest that is also prophecy" The last line transitions to the next stanza and places the speaker as a prophet for protesting, "O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, / Is this the handiwork you give to God," Now here the divine is separated into two groups -God's work, and man, taking up the name of the divine's work. And what is presented, "This monstrous thing distorted and soul quenched?" And with the rest of the stanza there's a call to change what is being made with "music and the dream" But note here the stanzas getting shorter and shorter -- the focus and direction is clear. The speaker asks this big rhetorical question, "O master, lords and rulers in all lands,/ How will the Future reckon with this Man?" The previous stanza talked about the present, the ones before that the past, and here we get to see the prophecy through questions, "How answer his brute question in that hour / When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?" Even beasts rebel like angels when pushed with the aftermath being, "When this dumb Terror shall reply to God / After the silence of the centuries?" Silence, dumb, a reply that is not a reply. In focuon Millet’s Man with a Hoe, Markham challenged the efficacy of republican agrarian myths -- often embodied in the image of the sturdy, independent, and proud yeoman farmer. In contrast, this painting presented a bent and broken peasant, wizened beyond his years, who toiled at the seemingly impossible task of cultivating a rocky wasteland stretching to the picture’s horizon. Markham wrote the opening stanza of the poem upon seeing Millet’s world-famous painting. Such powerful language angered those Americans who still believed in the nobility of rural work and the sacredness of the land. In response to those who resisted the call to agrarian reform, Markham adopted the view of social reformers, arguing that his poem not only embraced agrarian labor, but also indicted the evils of the industrial system. He wrote in 1900: I soon realized that Millet puts before us no chance toiler, no mere man of the fields. No, this stunned and stolid peasant is the type of industrial oppression in all lands and in all labors. He might be a man with a needle in a New York sweat shop, a man with a pick in a West Virginia coal mine…. The hoeman is the symbol of betrayed humanity, the toiler ground down through ages of oppression, through ages of social injustice. He is the man pushed away from the land by those who fail to use the land, till at last he has become a serf, with no mind in his muscle, and no heart in his handiwork…. In the hoeman we see the slow, sure, awful degradation of man through endless, hopeless and joyless labor. Did I say labor? No—drudgery. Indeed, this poem represented a form of literary dissent – a protest against the changing conditions of labor in rural and urban America. As demonstrated by the powerful public response to both Markham’s poem and Millet’s painting, the representation of the worker, both literary and visual, served as a lightening rod in the struggle over social change. By the 1880s, the worker had assumed a

variety of social guises: serving the ends of reform as the hapless victim of industrial oppression and bolstering the forces of the status quo as the demonized agent of anarchy and violent change.