What truth can be found in a stone? What experiences can we have with a stone, and what can those experiences teach us? “Stone” seems to challenge Yugoslavian-born poet Charles Simic’s dedication to expressing human experience and the truths of living in the every-day world. But a thoughtful reading of this poem reveals that it is much more a study of human nature than rocks.

“Go inside a stone/That would be my way.” The first lines immediately put the stone in a human context; the narrator is saying that he would like to be a stone. “I am happy to be a stone.” But why? Because the stone is private—no one can know anything about what is on the inside of a stone. It has a secret, inner life that no accident or mistreatment can ruin; not being stepped on by a cow, or thrown into a river by a child. A stone, unlike a person, is hard to damage, and even if its outside is harmed, its inside is still safe, and secret—“a riddle.” Humans, on the other hand, have outside bodies that are nothing but vulnerable, easily hurt or damaged; bodies can’t hold up to accident or mistreatment without being ruined to some extent or another. We keep our precious inner lives in a very fragile container. If our bodies are damaged—and everyone has had some sort of accident that hurt them—it’s hard for humans to remain “cool and quiet”,  preserving our inner lives.

Read a biography of the poet Charles Simic at the Poetry Foundation Web site.

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