6 January 2023

By James
1 Kirkup
 About the Poet
James Falconer Kirkup (23 April
1918 – 10 May 2009) was an
English poet, translator and travel
writer. He wrote over 30 books
including autobiographies, novels
and plays. He wrote under many
pen-names including James
Falconer, Andrew James and
others. He became a fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature in 1962. 2
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 About the Poem
The poem ‘No Men Are Foreign’ is a strong
plea for peaceful co-existence and universal
brotherhood. People all over the world are
brothers and sisters and the man-made
barriers of class or creed are unnatural and
undesirable. It is written in the first person
and the speaker is the poet. The entire poem is
an apostrophe because the poet is speaking to
the readers who are not present in front of
him. The poem also deals with xenophobia or
fear of foreigners.
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 About the Poem
STRUCTURE: The poem consists of
20 lines. It has 5 stanzas of 4 lines each
– thus each stanza is a quatrain.
RHYME SCHEME: The poem is
written in free verse i.e. it has no
rhyme scheme.
SETTING: The setting of the poem is
the arena of the human mind i.e. all
the action takes place in the minds of
the people.
TONE: The tone of the poem is 4

disparaging or reproachful. 6 January 2023

 Stanza 1
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.

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 Summary
In this stanza, 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. 6
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 Stanza 2
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.

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 Summary
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.
Again just like us, war has been a long winter to them,
when food is scarce and every moment brings with it the
dread of an approaching famine. They look just like us and
are descended from the same ancestors as we are.
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 Stanza 3
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake

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Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.

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 Summary
Here, 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. The common
people live the same kind of life everywhere. You can
recognize the presence of that life anywhere in the world. 10
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 Stanza 4
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other

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 Summary
In this stanza, the poet protests against 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 misleading 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 any member of the human race is tantamount 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 and its survival on earth. 12
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 Stanza 5
It is the human earth that we defile.
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.

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 Summary
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 be no one
left to take care of the home that our ancestors had passed
down to us. 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. So the poet encourages
us not to wage war on our fellow men thinking they are
foreigners and that their countries are unlike our own. 14
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 Title
The title ‘No Men Are Foreign’ is apt
for the poem because it deals with
the theme of universal brotherhood.
Human beings all over the world
have identical behaviour and
differences based on man-made
concepts of caste, creed, race, etc are
unnatural. Every human being
responds positively to love. Hence no
human being is a foreigner or
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outsider.
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 Theme
The theme of the poem ‘No Men Are
Foreign’ is the oneness of of mankind
underneath the superficial differences of
colour, nationality, faith, etc. It
presupposes that all human beings are
brothers and sisters. Those who spread
hatred and wage wars are criminals who
deserve to be condemned. The poem also
deals with love and friendship among all
the people in the world.
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 Message
This is a peace poem and gives the
message to stop all wars and look upon
humanity as a single entity. The poet
warns the rulers of all the countries
that when they wage wars, they not
only injure the interests of whom they
hate but also injure themselves. They
should know that peace brings
prosperity and war brings destruction.
So they should not spread hatred.
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 Message
If readers are willing to read between
the lines of “No Men Are Foreign”, they
will see that 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
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will be a better place.
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 Literary Devices
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign (L1)
ANAPHORA because the word ‘no’ is repeated at
the beginning of each clause.
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes (L2)
ALLITERATION because the ‘b’ sound is repeated for
poetic effect.
The land our brothers walk upon (L3)
METAPHOR because the people of other counties are
indirectly compared to our brothers without using ‘as or
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‘like’.
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 Literary Devices
Is earth like this, in which we shall lie. (L4)
EUPHEMISM because the poet is speaking of death in
lighter terms. (lie = buried after death)
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starved
(L6)
TRANSFERRED EPITHET because the harvests are not
peaceful but the times are peaceful (no war).
METAPHOR because war times are indirectly compared to
a long winter without using ‘as’ or ‘like’
ANTITHESIS because two opposite words ‘fed’ and
‘starved’ are used in the same line. 20
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 Literary Devices
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read (L7)
INVERSION because the order of the words is changed for
poetic effect.
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep (L9 / 10)
SYNECDOCHE because a part (eyes) is used to denote
the whole body.
ANTITHESIS because two opposite words ‘wake’
and ‘sleep’ are used in the same sentence.
ENJAMBMENT because the 9rd line runs into the 10th
without using any kind of punctuation mark to pause. 21
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 Literary Devices
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn. (L 13 / 14 /15)
PARADOX because the statement appears to contradict
itself. When we hate others, we harm ourselves.
CLIMAX because the words ‘dispossess, betray and
condemn are arranged in the order of increasing
importance.
ENJAMBMENT because the 13th line runs into the 14th
and the 14th into the 15th without using any kind of
punctuation mark to denote a pause. 22
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 Literary Devices
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air
METAPHOR because bombs are indirectly
compared to hells of fire and dust.
PERSONIFICATION because air is personified i.e.
it is given the human quality of being innocent.

By war’s long winter starved (L6)

ALLITERATION because the ‘w’ sound is repeated
for poetic effect. 23
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 Video

https://youtu.be/L5M5mSRC0Ik

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