Jordan Roark Creative Writing 153 Close Reading #5 Observations There is a metaphor in stanza 2, line 1, From the outside

the stone is a riddle: The first two lines of stanza 3 both have 5 words each. There are three stanzas in the poem. There are a total of 22 lines in the poem, 5 in stanza 1, 9 in stanza 2, 8 in stanza 3. There is a personification in stanza 2, line 6, The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed As a stone cannot really be calm or unperturbed There is a total of 5 sentences in the poem. The word not is italicized in stanza 3, line 3. The author uses two dashes - - to end the fifth line of stanza 3. The author capitalizes every line in the poem. The author uses enjambment in line 1 and 2 of stanza 3. I have seen the sparks fly out/When two stones are rubbed. The author uses some unique punctuation in comparison to the rest of the poem in: line 1 of stanza 2, From the outside the stone is a riddle: Line 5, stanza 2, Even though a child throws it in a river; Line 3 stanza 3, So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;

Analysis Stone by Charles Simic seems to be a poem about his choice to be a stone if he could embody something else in the world. I believe this is easily understood because the poem starts out, Go inside a stone/That would be my way. This provides evidence that he willfully chooses the stone as his choice. Let someone

else become a dove/ Or gnash with a tigers tooth Follow the first two lines previously quoted, providing a contrasting opinion to his own and thus setting the parameters and context of the question. Which seem to be the question what would you be if you had a choice to be something else, which makes sense from these first four lines of the poem that seem to explain this clearly to the reader. I believe this poem is trying to explain the positive aspect of being solid and certain about yourself and who you are, being unaffected by outward pressures, which create a peaceful, quiet, seemingly fulfilling life. In Stanza 2, lines 3-6, Even though a cow steps on it full weight/ Even though a child throws it in a river;/ The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed I believe this explains, if you think of the rock as being a person, which the author chooses earlier in the poem, that outward pressures from life, relative to heavy pressure from a cow, or being thrown by a child, can be handled by being rock like in nature, and not reacting to the bad things that may come to pass in your life. The last line ends with unperturbed even after the mistreatments that seemed to have just happened to the rock, which I interpreted as the state of mind one earns by being solid and confident about themselves, and not allowing these to really affect the status of their being. In stanza 3, lines 2 and 3, So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;/Perhaps there is a moon shining I believe explains the authors viewpoint on the seemingly complacent individual that has this rock like characteristics to their mind. Often times I think of someone who keeps their stance on an issue unchanging or remains indifferent to some aspects of their lives live in darkness in a sense, ignoring certain aspects, or maybe just being a boring person in general. But this line gives light to the idea that even though someone may not

express themselves outwardly often, they are often using the light within themselves to see and express themselves for themselves, because it is within them, and only illuminating the inside. This poem has many interesting facets and I believe that it can be understood many different ways, which I believe also relates to stones and people in the same way, in the sense that people can be judged and valued infinite ways, so can a stone, for example one person might find a stone to be good luck, or a skipping stone, or a material used for concrete, or something to stack.

Personal Response I liked the way the poem read the first time I read it, it sounded genuine if thats a quality the sound of words can have. I thought this probably because the author seems to point out that he does not really know all there is to know, when he introduces a new idea in the third stanzas third line, so perhaps it is not dark inside after all. This for me gives credibility to the speaker because I dont believe he really knows all there is to know about the rock, and by introducing this he gives the reader more of a reason to believe what he thinks because he points out his weaknesses or faults. The idea of this object the rock being able to maintain its composure and tranquility after going through a series of harsh events is a pleasant image as well. This is pleasant because a majority of the times I see things going wrong and then learn the after math, which is often detrimental to whatever the object was and their mindset, such as a car crash victims health, or the state of mind of someone who just lost a game, but in this case the rock was the same before and

after, a hopeful image came to mind for me. These qualities made it pretty enjoyable to read as well as dig deeper into the poem.