The Man with a Hoe

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans

Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back, the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this 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 feel the passion of Eternity?
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.
What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of the Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world,
A protest that is also prophecy.
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
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?
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings-With those who shaped him to the thing he is-When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?

Summary
The poem "The Man with the Hoe," by Edwin Markham, was the poets comment on labor after observing the
painting L'homme la houe, in which a french peasant toils in the fields. The laborer serves as a symbol of a
hard deprived life as mankind toils in the field. The man receives no reward for his labor nor does he have
much time to rest before being back in the fields. For the man life is mundane and repetitive. The man has
been equipped with the gifts of the ability to learn and know about philosophy and dreams, but they have been
stripped away from him. He is a prisoner in the fields by something corrupt that uses him like an ox. The man,
who was created in Gods image, falls short he believes of what God had expected for mankind. The poet
questions if this was what was intended by God or has mans own hand led to this mans burdened life.
It is interesting to note that the painter, Millet, caused his government and the people around him to be
concerned that he was making a Socialist statement about the painting. In the same way, Markhams poem was
not received well by the Aristocrats.

Annalysis

After viewing French artist Jean-Franois Millets world-famous 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 Years 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 poems 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 support 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, Millets 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?