What is meant by the quotation "what to him / Are Plato
and the swing of Pleiades?" in "The Man with a Hoe" by
Edwin Markham?
What is a summary of the poem "The Man with a Hoe" by
Edwin Markham?
nspired by a painting by Millet, Edwin Markham wrote
The Man with the Hoe to draw attention to the plight of
those forced into lifelong labor and poverty. He describes
a man whose spirit has been broken by toil and
compares his hopeless existence with the sacred image
in which God supposedly created humanity. The speaker
then addresses the rich and powerful who profit from the
labor of people like the man with the hoe, predicting that
one day the oppressed masses will rise up and sit in
judgment over their former oppressors.
painting by Millet, Edwin Markham wrote The Man with
the Hoe to draw attention to the plight of those forced
into lifelong labor and poverty. He describes a man
whose spirit has been broken by toil and compares his
hopeless existence with the sacred image in which God
supposedly created humanity. The speaker then
addresses the rich and powerful who profit from the labor
of people like the man with the hoe, predicting that one
day the oppressed masses will rise up and sit in judgment
over their former oppressors.
and lament on behalf of those in servitude, which gives
voice, through one symbolic laborer, to the description of
what workers become when yoked to the "wheel of
labor" and gives voice to the description of intellectual
and spiritual endowments workers are robbed of. The
poem then asks "O masters, lords and rulers in all lands" if
the broken "shape" of God's "dream" is really what they
want to present to God as their own "handiwork." It further
asks what they and the future will do when, after "the
silence of the centuries," this "Man" rebels to "shake all
shores" and to judge those who have stripped him of his
mind, strength and humanity.
The first stanza gives a description of the one worker who
is the symbol for all in servitude--who, in the last stanza, is
called "Man" for his Humanity--that says he is weighted,
empty, bowed down, burdened. He is also "dead to
rapture and despair," grief and hope alike. The "light
within his brain" has been blown out. The questions of
whose hand made him so and whose breath blew out
the light are rhetorically asked.
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, ...
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? (I)
The second stanza contrasts this description with one of
how God created the "shape" of "Man" that he might
"trace the stars," Man being what God "dreamed who
shaped the suns." This equates Man, or workers, with the
might of suns. The third stanza describes the gulf that
separates the burdened, lightless laborer from the angels,
saying the "dread shape" of Man "cries protest to God":
Man, the shape of humanity betrayed, robbed, made
unsanctified, and disowned protests to God.
Is this the Thing ...
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 (II)
The fourth and fifth stanzas are apostrophes addressed to
"O masters, lords and rulers in all lands." The stanzas ask if
these potentates are proud of their "handiwork" and if
they think their handiwork fitting tribute to give back to
God. The stanzas further ask how they, now, and how the
future, later, will react when this disowned, betrayed
humanity abandons silence and rises up in rebellion, then
sits in judgement over the "masters, lords and rulers" who
broke and battered and betrayed them, who stole the
light from them.
How will you ...
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? (IV)
The latter half of the second stanza is a bit problematic for
modern readers. In the phrase "there is no shape more
terrible than this," the "shape" is the worker; it is the Man
(representing Humanity). He is "terrible" in the sense of
something being formidable or powerful (American
Heritage Dictionary): the disowned Man after centuries of
silent slavery is formidable, powerful. He is "tongued" with
cries of protests against the greedy; he is "filled" with
warnings about salvation for the soul; he is "packed" with
the danger of rebellion waged against the universe.
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. (II)
How can I describe the man with the hoe from the
painting?
The painting shows a laborer or farmer in a field, resting
for a moment on his hoe. If you glance at the field
behind him, you won't envy the backbreaking work he
has put into his day. I am going to say that he is not
working with your ordinary Home Depot garden hoe, but
a solid iron agricultural tool that very definitely will get
heavier as the day progresses.
But why did Markham pick such an ordinary subject out
of the sublime and majestic that would have delighted
the well-to-do visitors of art galleries? My guess is that it
was shocking in the very same way Gustave
Courbet's The Stone Breakers or Burial at Ormans shocked
the fashionable Parisian public. It was a world away from
Claude Monet's Le Bassin d'Argenteuil with its sailboats on
a lovely, placid summer day.
The painter of Man with a hoe wanted, as Courbet
wanted, to remind the self-satisfied public of the millions
whose lives made the world turn, and perhaps motivate
them into reforming action.
What Is The Image Of The Man With The Hoe
Jean-Franois Millets painting, Man With a Hoe, depicts
an exhausted peasant man working in a field. It was
meant to highlight the plight of the working class and was
considered very controversial at the time. Inspired by this
painting, Edwin Markham wrote the poem The Man with
the Hoe. Markhams poem describes a hopeless laborer
who is treated more like a beast than a human being.
nalysis of "The Man with the Hoe" by Edwin Markham
Original poem reprinted online here: "The Man with the
Hoe" by Edwin Markham
Originally read: September 28, 2013
More information about the Poet: Edwin Markham
This poem is an eckphrastic piece based on this painting
by Millet.
What the speaker does in the poem is relate the singular
image to an expansive one and back to a singular one
again -- as though to dig for apparent meaning.
"Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans / Upon his
hoe and gazes on the ground /The emptiness of ages in
his face." already the speaker is going for a very broad
rhetoric with general terms like "centuries" and
"emptiness" appropriated to the man in the portrait who is
now become more of a symbol for the reader to
sympathize with.
For the man is, "made him dead to rapture and despair /
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes / Stolid and
stunned, a brother to the ox?" Beast of burden. The
speaker is adding more and more meaning to his
propped up symbol against another symbol of those that
"made him" this way.
The list of rhetorical questions transforms the symbol into
the beast of burden:
Who loosened and let down the 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 face the passion of Eternity?
Note how the transformation focuses on the symbol then
expands outward to the divine. And note the divine here
is used somewhat cynically -- who has dominion over
beasts -- man. But who makes a man into a beast --
man? Divine?
The rest of the stanza faces the divine, so if heavenly will
pushes man back down then "hell" does this:
There is no shape more terrible than this --
More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed -
-
More filled with signs and portents for the soul --
More fraught with menace to the universe.
The key here is the use of repetition: anaphora of more
and dashes to simulate a build up of want. More things is
needed, but with more there's greed and menace.
And then there is the stanza break, but not a break in the
momentum. The break serves as a focusing device with,
"What gulfs between him and the seraphim! / Slave of the
wheel of labor, what to him / Are Plato and the swing of
Pleiades?" In one way these lines are trying to find
meaning with the man now a beast of burden.
Knowledge means nothing to someone meant only to
work. And this work is central to progress but with a price,
"Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; / Through this
dread shape humanity betrayed," with the divine still
pushing man down, "Plundered, profaned and
disinherited, / Cries protest to the Judges of the World, / A
protest that is also prophecy"
The last line transitions to the next stanza and places the
speaker as a prophet for protesting, "O masters, lords and
rulers in all lands, / Is this the handiwork you give to God,"
Now here the divine is separated into two groups --
God's work, and man, taking up the name of the divine's
work. And what is presented, "This monstrous thing
distorted and soul quenched?" And with the rest of the
stanza there's a call to change what is being made with
"music and the dream" But note here the stanzas getting
shorter and shorter -- the focus and direction is clear.
The speaker asks this big rhetorical question, "O master,
lords and rulers in all lands,/ How will the Future reckon
with this Man?" The previous stanza talked about the
present, the ones before that the past, and here we get
to see the prophecy through questions, "How answer his
brute question in that hour / When whirlwinds of rebellion
shake the world?" Even beasts rebel like angels when
pushed with the aftermath being, "When this dumb Terror
shall reply to God / After the silence of the centuries?"
Silence, dumb, a reply that is not a reply.
aEdwin Markham, who has been called the dean of
American poets, received national fame, and later
worldwide fame, when he published The Man with the
Hoe. It changed his career immediately. The poem
consists of forty-nine lines divided into five stanzas of
social commentary that focus on Americas working class
and their sufferings. It is a striking poem of protest against
exploited labor.
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?
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
Mans Inhumanity to Man, he writes of the many ills that
have befallen humankind: Mans 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?
What the speaker does in the poem is relate the singular
image to an expansive one and back to a singular one
again -- as though to dig for apparent meaning.
"Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans / Upon his
hoe and gazes on the ground /The emptiness of ages in
his face." already the speaker is going for a very broad
rhetoric with general terms like "centuries" and
"emptiness" appropriated to the man in the portrait who is
now become more of a symbol for the reader to
sympathize with.
For the man is, "made him dead to rapture and despair /
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes / Stolid and
stunned, a brother to the ox?" Beast of burden. The
speaker is adding more and more meaning to his
propped up symbol against another symbol of those that
"made him" this way.
The list of rhetorical questions transforms the symbol into
the beast of burden:
Who loosened and let down the 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 face the passion of Eternity?
Note how the transformation focuses on the symbol then
expands outward to the divine. And note the divine here
is used somewhat cynically -- who has dominion over
beasts -- man. But who makes a man into a beast --
man? Divine?
The rest of the stanza faces the divine, so if heavenly will
pushes man back down then "hell" does this:
There is no shape more terrible than this --
More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed -
-
More filled with signs and portents for the soul --
More fraught with menace to the universe.
The key here is the use of repetition: anaphora of more
and dashes to simulate a build up of want. More things is
needed, but with more there's greed and menace.
And then there is the stanza break, but not a break in the
momentum. The break serves as a focusing device with,
"What gulfs between him and the seraphim! / Slave of the
wheel of labor, what to him / Are Plato and the swing of
Pleiades?" In one way these lines are trying to find
meaning with the man now a beast of burden.
Knowledge means nothing to someone meant only to
work. And this work is central to progress but with a price,
"Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; / Through this
dread shape humanity betrayed," with the divine still
pushing man down, "Plundered, profaned and
disinherited, / Cries protest to the Judges of the World, / A
protest that is also prophecy"
variety of social guises: serving the ends of reform as the
hapless victim of industrial oppression and bolstering the
forces of the status quo as the demonized agent of
anarchy and violent change.

The last line transitions to the next stanza and places the
speaker as a prophet for protesting, "O masters, lords and
rulers in all lands, / Is this the handiwork you give to God,"
Now here the divine is separated into two groups --
God's work, and man, taking up the name of the divine's
work. And what is presented, "This monstrous thing
distorted and soul quenched?" And with the rest of the
stanza there's a call to change what is being made with
"music and the dream" But note here the stanzas getting
shorter and shorter -- the focus and direction is clear.

The speaker asks this big rhetorical question, "O master,

lords and rulers in all lands,/ How will the Future reckon
with this Man?" The previous stanza talked about the
present, the ones before that the past, and here we get
to see the prophecy through questions, "How answer his
brute question in that hour / When whirlwinds of rebellion
shake the world?" Even beasts rebel like angels when
pushed with the aftermath being, "When this dumb Terror
shall reply to God / After the silence of the centuries?"
Silence, dumb, a reply that is not a reply. In focusing
upon Millets Man with a Hoe, Markham challenged the
efficacy of republican agrarian myths -- often embodied
in the image of the sturdy, independent, and proud
yeoman farmer. In contrast, this painting presented a
bent and broken peasant, wizened beyond his years,
who toiled at the seemingly impossible task of cultivating
a rocky wasteland stretching to the pictures horizon.
Markham wrote the opening stanza of the poem upon
seeing Millets world-famous painting.
Such powerful language angered those Americans who
still believed in the nobility of rural work and the
sacredness of the land. In response to those who resisted
the call to agrarian reform, Markham adopted the view
of social reformers, arguing that his poem not only
embraced agrarian labor, but also indicted the evils of
the industrial system. He wrote in 1900:
I soon realized that Millet puts before us no chance toiler,
no mere man of the fields. No, this stunned and stolid
peasant is the type of industrial oppression in all lands
and in all labors. He might be a man with a needle in a
New York sweat shop, a man with a pick in a West
Virginia coal mine.
The hoeman is the symbol of betrayed humanity, the
toiler ground down through ages of oppression, through
ages of social injustice. He is the man pushed away from
the land by those who fail to use the land, till at last he
has become a serf, with no mind in his muscle, and no
heart in his handiwork.
In the hoeman we see the slow, sure, awful degradation
of man through endless, hopeless and joyless labor. Did I
say labor? Nodrudgery.
Indeed, this poem represented a form of literary dissent
a protest against the changing conditions of labor in rural
and urban America. As demonstrated by the powerful
public response to both Markhams poem and Millets
painting, the representation of the worker, both literary
and visual, served as a lightening rod in the struggle over
social change. By the 1880s, the worker had assumed a