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?”