📜 Poem 6: No Men Are Foreign

(i) The poet is speaking about the outward differences that people wear — such as military uniforms, national dresses, or any other external markers of identity. These uniforms represent the superficial differences that divide us.

(ii) The poet suggests that all people on earth are the same because beneath all these uniforms, a single body breathes. We all walk on the same earth and shall ultimately lie in it. We are all aware of the sun, air, and water. We are fed by peaceful harvests and suffer during wars. Our hands and labour are no different from one another. We all have eyes that wake or sleep, and strength that can be won by love. In every land, there is a common life that everyone can recognise and understand.

Answer: The five ways in which we all are alike, as mentioned in stanza 1, are:

• 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 this earth, we all shall lie.
• We are all brothers.

Answer: In stanza 2, we find several common features that unite all people:

• We are all aware of the sun, air, and water.
• We are all fed by peaceful harvests.
• We all suffer during war's long winter.
• Our hands are alike, and in their lines we read a labour not different from our own.

Answer: This happens during times of war or conflict, when leaders, governments, or people in power tell us to hate those from other countries or communities. They do this to create division and to justify violence. We should not do as we are told at such times because hatred ultimately harms ourselves. The poet says that when we hate others, we dispossess, betray, and condemn ourselves. We defile the human earth and outrage the innocence of the air that is everywhere our own. He reminds us that no men are foreign and no countries strange.