No Men are Foreign

Beneath all uniform, a single body breaths.....

As a postcolonial poem by James Kirkup, 'No Men are Foreign' demands the very term of universal brotherhood and humanity. 

According to the poet we should not consider anyone as foreign or 'strange' as we are the children of same God. The title itself gives the message of the poem. The poet reminds us of the beauty of humanity and worse of racial discrimination and Cultural hegemony. 

The setting of the poem is the post- war modern society. Colonial powers had suppressed the others for centuries, creating the myth of white supremacy. Kirkup rejects racial superiority of the colonial powers and celebrates the differences between people. 

In the poem, the poet tells us that no human beings are different. Beneath the superficial diffrences in appearances or behaviour, all human beings have similar feelings, emotions and reactions. They live on the same earth and breath the same air and one day all of them shall be laid to rest in the same earth. Thus all human beings are ultimately one. 

The poet exposes the horror and brutality of all war and exhorts all that when we hate our brothers, we do hate ourselves. 

We must unite to make everyone's life better. When we hate one another, we betray humanity. At the time of war, human beings fight  one another by thinking they are 'foreign' to each other. So the poem also a protest against xenophobia, racial hatred and armfare. 

Here James Kirkup broadens the idea of the 'other' through the refrain ' no men are strange and no countries foreign. The poet raises his voice against those groups that encourage us to wage wars against our brothers. He says that If we, the guardians of the earth, pick up arms against our brothers, and die as a result of the war, then there would no one to take care of the home that our ancestors had passed down to us. 

The poem No Men are Foreign gives a very important message. We should love each other, Do not posses hatred towards our fellow beings. There should be no biased attitude towards anyone. All human beings are same and save our earth from the total destruction.