What is the summary of the poem "No Men are Foreign" by James Kirkup?

Kirkup's
1966 poem "No Men are Foreign" focuses on the commonalities between all people. The
poem's speaker states of foreigners:

They, too, aware of
sun and air and water,

Are fed by peaceful harvests, by wars long winter
starvd.

We are all united, the poet says, by sharing the
same planet, as well as by work, by sleep, and by love. The speaker does not identify himself
with any nationality, tribe, or group: he could be anyone from anywhere reaching out to fellow
humans and expressing what we all share. This may reflect the fact that Kirkup, although
English, did live in various parts of the world, including Asia and America.

The poem becomes an expression of anti-war sentiment as it states:

whenever we are told

To hate our brothers, it is
ourselves

That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.

When Kirkup ends the poem with the line:

no men are foreign, and no countries strange

he echoes John Donne's idea that "no man is an island."
We are all one, bonded together in a common humanity.

Today we would most
likely use the word human or humankind instead of "man" or "men" (also, we
tend to call people from other parts of the world not foreigners, but internationals), but
Kirkup means to include all genders in his poem. His simple, straightforward language makes a
clear point: since we are all one, we should try to get along.