The Man with the Hoe
Edwin Markham [1852-1940]
Introduction
Charles Edward Markham who wrote under the name of Edwin Markham was^ born in Oregon City in America on 23rd April 1852. His father died before Edwin was five years old. Then his family settled in central California. Educated in a local school and college, he became the Headmaster of the Tompkins Observation School in Oakland. The first poem that brought him fame was The Man with the Hoe published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1899. During the next 40 years of his life he lived on Statan Island and produced five volumes of poems and much prose. His works include Lincoln and Other Poems (1901), California the Wonderful (1915), Gate of Paradise (1920), Ballad of the Gallows Bird (1926), Eight Poems at Eighty (1932) and Collected Poems (1940). Edwin Markham died on March 7, 1940
In the present poem, Markham draws a picture of a typical land-labourer, tired and worn out with soul so dead that he had become a brother to the ox. ^God made man in his own image, but this is what man has made of man. The poem was written as a response to an oil painting by the French artist Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875). The painting called "L'homme a la houe" depicted a man bent over by the burden of his work. The man held a hoe in his hand. Markham was deeply influenced by this painting and wrote the poem "The Man with the Hoe." The poem highlights the oppression and injustice suffered by the working class through the centuries. The poem gave Markham immediate fame. It is said to have brought to him 250,000 dollars by way of royalties! But the author himself once modestly said that it was 'a chance stroke. I caught the eye and ear of the world.
Poem
Signposts
The man with a hoe is a symbol of betrayal by humanity.
The betrayal is against God's plan of creating him.
There is a gap between what he is and what God intended him to be.
Appeal to the rulers to restore his human image.
Prediction of a rebellion of the working class.
Poem in Detail
Stanza 1
The poor exhausted farmer leans forward on his hoe gazing on the ground. He bows low under the weight of work over the centuries. The futility and emptiness of the ages is reflected on his face. The heavy burden of labour makes his back bend low and has made him insensitive to human emotions such as ecstasy, hope and despair. The farmer does not lament; neither does he see a ray of hope. Shocked and excited, he has become a labourer like an ox. Who has disfigured him by pushing down his jaw like that of an animal? The intensive labour has pushed back his brow, which makes him look old. All these have deprived him of his reasoning power.
Stanza 2
Is this the man who was created by God and was given control over the land and sea? Is this the man who is created to trace the stars and to explore space in order to exert his power? Is he not meant to explore the universe and experience a strong desire for eternity? Is he the ideal man made by God, the creator of suns and who designed their path over the oceans? The figure of this farmer is more terrible than of someone living in the darkest region of hell. This is the man who shows forth the world's blind greed. He is more filled with ominous signs of spiritual degeneration. He has within himself a great danger to the universe than any other thing in the world.
Stanza 3
There is a big difference between the farmer and those who are powerful. While the powerful enjoy the status of the highest angel, the farmer is reduced to the level of a slave. To such a degenerated symbol of humanity, the philosophy of Plato, the world of astronomy, and the wonders of music, the beauty of the Dawn as well as the blooming of roses have no significance. In his awful shape, the signs of the long suffering of the labourers is reflected. His dreadful shape is a symbol of the betrayal of humanity. The hoeman—who has become a representative of the suffering masses—has been looted, desecrated, and deprived of his rightful possessions. He cries out in protest to his Creator and his protest is a prediction of an imminent rebellion.
Stanza 4
Oh masters, rulers, men in power in all countries! Is he the degenerated man whom you want to offer as a gift to God? He is degenerated, dehumanized by sufferings. He can't even think. How will you remedy the situation? How will you instill in him human aspirations, illuminations, aesthetic sense and hope? How would you make amends for the lasting insults, treacherous injustice, and endless sorrows, which have been inflicted on the labourers for centuries?
Stanza 5
Lords, masters and rulers in all countries! How will you account for the abuse of your fellowmen down the ages? What answer will you give to the simple questions asked by the work-force when they rise in rebellion everywhere against their oppressors? What will the fate of kings and kingdoms be? They have destroyed the true image of the working class. The blind terror will sit in judgement after centuries of patient suffering. Then it shall rise to judge its masters.
Notes
Stanza 1
bowed: bent under.
weight of centuries: the burden of miseries accumulated over many centuries.
leans upon: a labourer is seen bent over his hoe,
gazes: stares with disdain. For all his efforts on the ground, he has got nothing significant in life.
emptiness: lack of achievement in the past or hope for anything in future. This feeling of frustration is reflected on his face.
ages: centuries.
burden: (two meanings)
(i) heavy responsibility of working for human beings (the benefits of which did not accrue to him.)
(ii) troubles and miseries in the world.
Responsibilities of working and miseries accumulated make his back bend.
dead: non-sensitive, having no feeling for.
rapture: great delight; ecstasy. despair: hopelessness.
stolid: unemotional, passive.
stunned: dazed, astonished.
brutal: cruel.
Who loosened jaw: who made him powerless (by loosening and letting down his jaw like in an old man)?
Whose was that hand: who was responsible.
slant: turn.
brow: eyebrow.
Who was responsible for pushing back his eyebrow? That is, to make him look old and haggard.
breath: command, order.
blow out: extinguish.
light: power of thinking and understanding.
Stanza 2
Thing: human being; capital T is used to emphasise that 'thing' is precious; it is a human being.
The Lord God .... land: Here an allusion is made to the (Bible) Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 28. According to the Bible, God made man from the clay of earth and breathed life into him. God gave him power over sea and land, i.e., over the whole universe.
to trace: to find out.
search the heavens for power: to explore space or to use energy such as solar energy, from heavenly bodies.
passion of: strong desire for. dream: vision of God for man.
He: God, the creator of man.
shaped: created. marked: charted out.
the ancient deep: an expression used by Milton, meaning chaos. Markham was a great admirer of Milton.
And marked............. deep: And charted
out the revolutions of the suns over the chaos. Chaos and darkness existed before God created everything in the universe and put
order in it.
caverns: caves.
gulf: an abyss, a deep place.
no shape: the appearance. The shape of the man with the hoe is so disgusting that such an appearance is not even found in all deep caves in hell — even its deepest abyss.
tongued: expressed with shock.
with censure: with harsh criticism (disapproval).
signs: indications.
portents: omens, warnings for the future.
packed: filled.
Stanza 3
gulf: big gap or contrast.
seraphim: an angel of the highest order.
slave....labour: slave of continuous work.
Plato: Greek philosopher.
Pleiades: a cluster of stars in constellation Taurus, usually known as 'the seven sisters."
peaks of song: climax of a song. rift of dawn: break of dawn.
reddening: blooming,
dread shape: fearful shape of the stooping figure of the Hoeman.
suffering ages: centuries of
exploitation.
Times tragedy: a sorrowful event through the stretch of time over a long period.
aching stoop: painful stooping posture.
betrayed: humiliated by an act of unkindness.
plundered, profaned and disinherited: robbed, desecrated and deprived of his right.
protests: rebels, objects.
Power: God.
prophecy: a prediction of future events.
Stanza 4
handiwork: a thing done with one's own hands.
monstrous: like a monster, huge and ugly.
distorted: twisted out of shape.
soul-quenched: a being without aspiration or hope.
straighten up: restore dignity to something.
touch it again with immortality: reawaken a sense of belonging in the despairing Hoeman.
Upward looking: having hope and aspiration.
the light: ability to think,
rebuild: revive.
it: oppressed labour class.
music: harmony.
the dream: ideals.
make right: rectify.
immemorial infamies: wicked behaviour over a long time.
perfidious: deceitful. wrongs: injustices. immedicable: incurable. woes: sufferings.
Stanza 5
reckon with: encounter, face.
brute question: blunt question.
whirlwinds of rebellion: strong protests of rebellion.
shake all shores: shake all the countries.
dumb: mute.
terror: extreme fear.
dumb Terror: personification of the angry figure symbolising the oppressed working class.
silence of the centuries: patient endurance by the oppressed class over many centuries
