Man Versus Stones and Onions

Man Versus Stones and Onions

Jacob Haas

            Man often spends his time separated from nature, sometimes trying to understand it or fighting against it. Wislawa Szymborska attempts to embody the conflicting natures of humans and mother nature in two of her poems, Conversation with a Stone and The Onion. While she displays the conflict between humans and nature, Szymborska writes about the apparent superiority of nature. Szymborska seems to say that while human curiosity may try to understand and control nature, the natural order will be one step ahead and prove to be better than mankind.

            The first poem by Wislawa Szymborska, Conversation with a Stone, tells a story about a character who attempts to “gain entrance” into the stone by “knock(ing) at the stone’s front door.” The knocking on the “stone’s front door” can be read as the human’s desire to discover the stone’s (nature) secrets. With this reading, we can see the human trying again and again to coax the stone into granting him entrance; while the stone repeatedly denies the character what he wants (Conversation with a Stone). This can be compared to a scientist attempting to learn from nature through research, trying again and again in order to discover something about nature with nature attempting to safeguard its secrets.

            Looking at the scientist-like narrator, we can see the curious and persistent human attempting to solve a puzzle and gain knowledge that nature believes is not ready and does not want to give up. The line “I knock at the stone’s front door,” which is repeated throughout the bulk of the poem shows the persistence of the man attempting to discover nature’s secrets through the stone (Conversation with a Stone). These repeated lines can be seen to stand for the humans repeated attempts, continuing to solve the stone like a puzzle to be rewarded with the knowledge within nature.

            This persistence can be paired with human curiosity, which is displayed through the human character in the poem. With his persistence, the human voices his curiosity by asking if he can see the many different things inside the stone. He also says early in the poem “I’ve come out of pure curiosity. / Only life can quench it” while asking for entrance into the stone’s “palace” (Conversation with a Stone). These lines seem to indicate both the curiosity of man, but also the character’s goals. He seems to be saying that while he comes out of curiosity, he wants to learn the secrets of the stone, nature, and life by doing so.

            These grand empty halls or palace inside the stone could be seen to represent the vast knowledge to be gained from gaining entrance into the scientific discoveries within nature, in this case the stone. Although there is much knowledge within the secrets of nature which could benefit humans, nature or the stone is not going to give up its secrets easily. The narrator of the story shows great persistence in attempting to pry into the rock to attain the secrets held within, but persistence is apparently not what is needed in order to discover the secrets in the secret halls of the stone. The stone references this lack of the wisdom needed to attain knowledge of nature near the middle of the poem, saying that the “palace” is “Beautiful, perhaps, but not to the taste / of your poor senses” (Conversation with a Stone). This is a reference to the unrefined intelligence or wisdom already gained by humans, but it is not enough to gain access to more knowledge hidden deep within the stone, within nature. The stone continues this argument soon afterwards when he informs the narrator that “You lack the sense of taking part. / No other sense can make up for your missing sense of / taking part” (Conversation with a Stone). By saying this to the narrator who is bent on discovering the secrets within the stone, it informs the human that he is not yet ready to learn what nature hides. Even though humans are persistent, persistence is not the skill required to attain natural enlightenment but rather a different kind of wisdom is required to fully comprehend the knowledge bound within the rock.

The stone, like it does not believe that the human is ready for such knowledge, repeatedly does not grant the man to “enter [its] insides, / have a look around, / breathe [his] fill of [it]” or access to the hidden secrets and natural knowledge within its possession (Conversation with a Stone). While the stone is subtle and gives hints that the man will never discover the secrets he desires, denying him entrance over and over and also stating that not even leaves, water, and hair, other natural forces, would surrender their secrets to the man’s curious questioning. The man, being persistent, does not stop even though it is becoming apparent that he will not gain any ground in this endeavor, so the stone finally made the man realize his flaw and reason he is not ready for the knowledge within by saying “I don’t have a door” (Conversation with a Stone). Using this as the final line of the poem creates a feeling of a sudden and abrupt end, which is what the stone caused the man to have. By causing the human character to realize that he made a crucial error while starting his questioning, he proves that since the man cannot possibly be ready for the secrets that lie beneath the surface of the rock because of the lack of understanding something simple.

Szymborska’s second poem, The Onion, has a different but similar tone than Conversation with a Stone. The Onion offers a point of view relatively free from human characters, allowing the poet to focus completely on the superiority of nature, in this case: onions.

In The Onion, Szymborska puts on the mindset of the “devout onionist” in order to project an air of superiority onto the onions. All of her hearty descriptions of the onion, from its simple anatomy to the many onions inside onions, indicate her belief that the onion is “the greatest success story” (The Onion). While the onions are compared to people on a couple occasions, the onions are shown as being a superior natural entity than that of the humans. Through its simplicity, it seems to be superior even with our more complex compositions. It is almost like the poem is saying that while humans are more superior organically, the onion is more superior by being simple and incorruptible.

Together, both poems display a theme of man versus nature, with nature being represented by the “wise” stone and the “perfect” onion. Both Conversation with a Stone and The Onion put natural entities on the pedestal above humanity, saying that man might not be ready to understand the wisdom that nature has to offer. Their themes together bring together a story of its own, in which the curious humans attempt to understand beings more superior than them in the eyes of nature.

While humans attempt to understand these more advanced, natural beings, they seem to taunt them with their hidden natural secrets and simple perfection. People are always trying to better themselves; in these poems it is no different. The character in the first story tries to learn from the stone, which might seem wise at first, until he realizes that he lacks the initial knowledge necessary to gain wisdom from the stone. This idea can be paired with the analysis of The Onion in that while the onion might appear to be simple, it can also be seem as superior. Try as they might, humans will never be capable of attaining a similar type of perfection like that of the onions.

            In the poems by Wislawa Szymborska, we can see the conflict between mankind and mother nature. While humans wish to study and understand the simple perfections in the natural world, it is difficult or impossible to understand their wisdom. With the stone, we can learn that although the stones themselves might have seen many things, the things they have seen are not open for man to view and observe. Meanwhile, the onion presents a different yet similar message with simplicity. Humans cannot attain the physical and organic simplicity of the onion, but it could be a message that humans will be better off if they stick to being simple and humble in their way of life. Together the poems show us that humans seem like a young species, trying to learn from the master, nature, with it always being just barely out of reach.

Works Cited

Szymborska, Wislawa. “Conversation with a Stone.”

Szymborska, Wislawa. “The Onion.”