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This poem will seem incomprehensible until one realizes that "Purple"
refers to a sunset. "The Yellow Man" is not an Asian, but rather the sun
between its rising and its setting. It stands for the "East" because that
is where it rises. If the yellow man arrives at the western horizon, the
sunset will allow the purple man to show himself if "He" carries him to the
west. Who is "He"? Either God or the sun itself (who transports both the
yellow and the purple men inside itself). The second quatrain should
present no problem once the first is understood. The purple man will give
way to the yellow man as the course of nature performs its circular
journey.
Thomas Hanson from United States