Poetry for Students

86 Poetry for Students

Lines 14–16

Throughout the first three stanzas, lines 1 to

13, examples of the opposite side of kindness grow

more serious and more depressing: from the future

as dissolving salt, losing something once held dear,

and forfeiting a life’s savings to the lonely, haunt-

ing death of an unknown Indian who “lies dead by

the side of the road,” seemingly of no concern to

those who pass by. The phrase “tender gravity” im-

plies the fickle and fragile nature of kindness, and

it is this deepest level that one needs to reach to

understand kindness. The word “tender” also is a

startling opposite of the senseless inhumanity in let-

ting the dead lie in the street without the benefit or

respect of proper treatment.

Lines 17–20

Lines 17 through 20 are perhaps the most

poignant in the poem. They make a remarkably

strong human-to-human connection between the

forgotten dead Indian and every person who passes

by—the “you” in general. The vital message is that

what happens to the Indian can happen to anyone

in the world. The words “this could be you” bring

the poem’s message down to the gut level: Re-

gardless of one’s ethnicity or race, economic sta-

tus, nationality, educational level, or any other

defining characteristic, human beings are all

“someone... with plans / and the simple breath”

that keeps them alive. This theme not only is per-

tinent in “Kindness” but also permeates much of

Nye’s work. Its reflection on her personal life as

an Arab American is both unmistakable and

intended.

Lines 21–22

In direct and precise language, lines 21 and 22

highlight the opposing poles of kindness and sor-

row. They begin the third consecutive stanza that

begins “Before you,” but this stanza ties together

the concrete images of the beginning of the poem—

salt, broth, bus riders, maize, chicken, Indian, and

white poncho—with more contemplative, philo-

sophical aspects. Kindness and sorrow are parallel.

Before one can “know kindness as the deepest thing

inside,” he or she must know that it has a real and

formidable opposite: Sorrow is the “other deepest

thing.”

Lines 23–26

Lines 23 through 26 demonstrate how impor-

tant it is to realize true sorrow before being able to

understand true kindness. To say that one “must

wake up with sorrow” implies how deep the feeling

should be ingrained in a human being before he or

she can appreciate the beauty of having sorrow

lifted through kindness. In lines 24 through 26, Nye

again relies on metaphor to convey the actual depth

of sorrow’s impact. The message is that everyday

talk must be full of sorrow until “your voice /

catches the thread of all sorrows,” “thread” imply-

ing something connecting and growing. When one

sees “the size of the cloth” that sorrow becomes,

one knows how large a part it plays in the overall

fabric of human life.

Lines 27–29

Lines 27 through 29, which begin the fourth

and final stanza of “Kindness,” mark a turning

point in the tone and ultimate message of the poem.

After all the examples of how bad ignorance, des-

olation, and sorrow can be, it is finally “only kind-

ness that makes sense anymore.” Kindness is tied

to the simple, everyday things that the average hu-

man being can relate to: tying shoestrings, mail-

ing letters, buying bread. The common

occurrences listed may be misleading in their ap-

parent simplicity. The actual message is that all of

everyday life revolves around how people are

treated on a regular basis. Sometimes the smaller

things a person experiences, such as daily chores,

are made possible only by the knowledge that

somewhere out there someone else was kind to him

or her that day.

Lines 30–32

In lines 30 through 32, Nye uses

personification—the technique of bringing a con-

cept or nonhuman thing to life by attributing to

it a human form, human characteristics, or human

behavior—to describe the relationship between

kindness and the “you” in the poem. Kindness

“raises its head / from the crowd of the world,”

implying its uniqueness in an otherwise cold and

mean environment. Nye then gives kindness a

strong and undeniable existence in human life: “It

is I[emphasis added] you have been looking for.”

This line leaves no question about the importance

of kindness in people’s lives. Kindness purports

itself to be the very thing that human beings are

seeking.

Lines 33–34

The final two lines of the poem leave the reader

with a positive thought, personifying kindness as a

welcomed being in anyone’s life. Kindness “goes

with you everywhere,” like a willing partner who

aims only to please. At times it may be “like a

Kindness