There was the sky, starless and vast--
Home of every one of our dark thoughts--
Its door open to more darkness.
And you, like a late door-to-door salesman,
With only your own beating heart
In the palm of your outstretched hand.

All things are imbued with God’s being--
She said in hushed tones
As if his ghost might overhear us--
The dark woods around us,
Our faces which we cannot see,
Even this bread we are eating.

You were mulling over the particulars
Of your cosmic insignificance
Between slow sips of red wine.
In the ensuing quiet, you could hear
Her small, sharp teeth chewing the crust--
And then finally, she moistened her lips.
 

By Diva Desai

            In “Night Silence”, Simic uses many descriptive words that characterize the wonder and anxiety of the night. Simic gives vivid details about the night through his description of people and their fears and worries during the night. The woman in the poem symbolically signifies evil and its touch to the world around us. Simic gives details about the night and how the darkness of it lingers around us with all of is negative energy. “There was the sky, starless and vast-- /Home of every one of our dark thoughts--/ Its door open to more darkness/.” Simic explains how the darkness of the night lingers around us with all of its negative energy. Simic shows us that darkness is everywhere, seeps into everything. The reader understands the darkness in the world around us. This poem symbolizes how good should overcome evil and darkness in the world so that everyone would not have as many worries to care for.

STONE

“By Charles Simic”

Go inside a stone
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

"By Diva Desai

               In “Stone” the stone symbolizes the complexity of a simple object. Simic gives many different descriptions on how other creatures react to the stone. Throughout the poem we see that the peace and tranquility inside the stone must be pleasant. “Go inside a stone / That would be my way. / Let somebody else become a dove / Or gnash with a tiger's tooth. / I am happy to be a stone.” In this stanza, Simic shows that he would like the peace inside of the stone and would be glad to let anyone else be the perfect dove. He tells the reader about how a stone is good at being thrown around or stepped on, but still feels like it has been undisturbed. He tells of how many of earth’s creatures listen inside of a stone after knocking on it to see if anything is there. Simic wants to be a stone because of its isolation from the outside world but can still see and feel the weight of it on its back. At the end of the poem, Simic comes through be saying that because when two stones are rubbed together and sparks fly, that the stone many not only be dark inside. A stone may symbolize stillness, but in the world of Charles Simic, it symbolizes complexity and peace which can ignite a spark in all of us.