The Man with his Hoe

On New Years day in 1898 Edwin Markham's poem "The man with his hoe" was read. This poem talked about laborers struggles and talked about society as a whole. He opens the poem with,
"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."
This quote begins by talking about the hardships of the laborer or middle class worker. He feels that they have a hard life and work hard all the time. This work tires the worker out and makes him feel empty as a whole because he is so tired. Yet, Markham explains that this worker's work is holding up the world. This worker works extremely hard just to feel this emptiness. The laborer's in the world hold the country up and we treat them with minimum wage and poor working conditions. Urbanization brought many people to cities to work in large corporations, yet as this poet feels, were under appreciated by the owners and, in turn, treated poorly. Markham shows that he dislikes what Urbanization has done to the world later in this poem. he says,
"O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quencht?"
Markham felt that the world that the people in power created is terrible. He feels the world is changed in the most terrible way and that it has brought upon the souls of humans being drained. Markham feels that the new world, industrialized and urbanized, is an unacceptable thing to give back to God. God created life, gave us everything we need to survive and made us the ruler of earth, yet we are going to give him back a world monstrous, distorted, and soul-quencht. Markham clearly feels that Urbanization has made the world a much worse place and has stripped so many people of their livelihood.