Opinion | “No Men are Foreign”

After a long hiatus from reading poetry,I finally returned back to reading poetry and fortunately the poem I read is what made me write this piece. I read “No Men Are Foreign” and it instantly stuck the chord, considering world is very much close to war.No men are foreign is a poem by James Kirkup and time has come,where this poem becomes more important than any other time .Present world is filled with so much hate that one isn’t able to distinguish what’s right or wrong ?Even,the change in family opinions leads to disintegration.We as a whole humanity need to come together and help each other in overcoming this tumultuous time.Poem in itself is a wonder.Written in 1996,Poem focuses on the commonalities between all people.As a global society,we are divided on the basis of colour,race,religion,country,culture,etc.Even Politicians try to intensify differences between people living in their own country.The best way to avoid division is to believe that people all over the world should believe in the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man.In several countries of the world,lets take U.A.E as an example, people belonging to different religions are living in a spirit of brotherhood. There are no troubles or communal riots.But certain other countries are at daggers drawn with their neighbours.e.g,there is bad blood between Israel and Palestine.The relations between India and Pakistan are very bad. The War is on between Ukraine and Russia. Even United Nations Organisation has not been able to bring peace to the warring nations.We should develop an international outlook.Even Religious Prophets like Muhammad(s.a.w ) ,social reformers like Martin Luther king ,Mahatma Gandhi and preachers like Buddha all over the world have taught Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man since time immemorial.We should not consider people from other countries as foreigners.People may wear clothes of different colours but under their clothes,their bodies are the same like ours.The Earth on which they walk is the same as ours.They shall be buried in the same earth in which we shall be buried.They work like us.They have the same problems,thoughts,concerns and emotions like us.We should not be jingoistic and live in the watertight compartments of narrow national feelings.We all are the children of God though living in different countries.

We should not think of fighting with other countries.By using engines of war like guns, mortars and grenades,we shall raise hells of fire and a lot of dust from the fields of battle as was the case during WW1 and WW2.We will poison the air and the earth that belongs to us.As such hatred of any kind is unwise.We should not hate people from other countries,by doing this we only deceive and lower ourselves.For example Kirkup talks about the foreigners in these couplets as:
“They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d”.
We are all united, the poet says, by sharing the same planet, as well as by work, by sleep, and by love. The speaker does not identify himself with any nationality, tribe, or group: he could be anyone from anywhere reaching out to fellow humans and expressing what we all share. This may reflect the fact that Kirkup, although English, did live in various parts of the world, including Asia and America.Next poet talks about war,which the world is quite close to see again.Kirkup knows how wars turnout to be.They bring destruction with them.Out of wars we gain nothing,in turn we lose our kiths and kins to bullets.Kirkup doesn’t want war and so does we.Only a soldier knows,how wars are ? Poem becomes an expression of anti-war sentiment as it states:
“whenever we are told
to hate our brothers, it is ourselves
that we shall dispossess, betray, condemn”.
When Kirkup ends the poem with the line:
“no men are foreign, and no countries strange”
he echoes John Donne’s idea that “no man is an island.” We are all one, bonded together in a common humanity.Today we would most likely use the word human or humankind instead of “man” or “men” (also, we tend to call people from other parts of the world not foreigners, but internationals), but Kirkup means to include all genders in his poem. His simple, straightforward language makes a clear point: since we are all one, we should try to get along and happily live together.
Writers name: Hanief Bin Aziz
Works in Department of Food and consumer affairs.

(About Writer : Writer can be reached at mdhanief110@gmail.com)