Thread: The Man That You Hate ~Isaiah Lake

The Man That You Hate
~Isaiah Lake

A man that you mock
A man that you hate
A man you will strip
Of his honor and name

His face, it drips blood
And spit from your mouth
As he gives his life
To protect you now

His great, noble cause
Is the liberty
Of those who won’t pause
To remember his deeds

He gave up his life
To ensure that you could
Sit, as you do now
Comfortably in your house
And shout freely with rage
To forsake his name

Ignorance is bliss
So the ignorant say
The same ones who teach
In our schools today

They teach about men
Who gave up their lives
To save the freedom you have
To shout out your lies

Hi Isaiah. As this is a religious poem, I'm gonna address some philosophical points.

I take it you want to address non-christians, with the roman spitting guy from the story as a clear example. Now I must say, that the attitude of the poem itself I find quite non-christian. Wouldn't JC - your man - rather have you turn the other cheek than speaking down to non-christians? Coz it seems to me, from that underlying attitude I feel I pick up on, that the piece is mostly based on being provocative...

Then another point is that in general the piece takes some quite deep and spiritual stuff for granted without making any proper investigations of them. Ex. in third stanza, how do you know that it really is liberty and not a cage which befalls those believers? Jumping to such conclusions will make many turn away from the poem. And given it addresses non-christians, quite unfortunately it looses its appeal to them by generally being conclusive throughout yet without any real grounds to base its statements on.

I hope you understand the points I'm making and I hope I haven't offended you in any way. I might be missing out on stuff as well, and I'm very open to hear your take on it.

Best,
Martin

I liked it.

I could delve deep into this topic, but this thread is not the place.

Perhaps the strength of emotion in the writing is counter-productive? It could cause a reader to turn off.

Brian

Wow. I didn't realize the resemblance this had to the story of Jesus. I'm glad that you took a different look at it than I intended. It's always nice to hear someone else give their take on something. The poem was actually intended to be about men and women who fight to protect our freedom in the military. Go back and read it again if you don't mind. Note that I said "They teach about men." "Men" is referring to multiple people. The way you looked at it was interesting, but I think you were a bit quick to find the meaning of the poem. Thank you for your take on that Martin.

Wow, my first thought WAS Jesus.

I was picturing a solider the first time I read it. Did not make the religious connection until I read the first response. However, upon rereading I can see how almost every line can be seen as a reference to JC or a solider.

Well the ignorance thing I thought was about the Fall, and the references to men, worked as there are many martyrs in christianity. But then I'd say your extreme glorification of a soldier is way over the top! In that regard the point about jumping to conclusions still hold. Since you address non-war believers (right?) you really need some at least slightly convincing content to just get their interest...

I made a military connection on the first read, especially since you stated...
He gave up his life
To ensure that you could
Sit, as you do now
Comfortably in your house
And shout freely with rage
...but there was a strong religious undertone to the poem coming through as well, but I felt that to be the case since the military does use religious imagery to emphasis certain points it wants to make that are larger than life, so again I thought maybe that's what you were trying to stress, which you may well have been. I enjoyed it.

I read this the other day and immediately thought soldier. After reading Martin's reply, I thought I had misinterpreted your intentions, until I got to the final stanza. Your use of men as opposed to a man kind of ruled out the religious for me. Two suggestions, eliminate the caps every line, they are distracting, and I would prefer some punctuation, but whether or not to use it is completely up to you. I really liked your message, thank you for sharing.

Best,
Lisa