the Traveling Onion

Generally I tend to be a person who tells things as they are. This is the same way I like to hear to those same things, direct and to the point. For this reason I have never been a huge fan of poetry, just wishing all the poets of the world would tell things as they as they are. It was this line of thinking that first led me to believe “The Traveling Onion” was nothing more than the product of a cook somewhere who was overly zealous for one of his ingredients.
After re-reading the poem several times however certain aspects began to stick. Parts of the poem didn’t seem to flow smoothly, with the poem alternating between a simple physical description of the onions properties and praises attributing human characteristics and responses to the onion. It became apparent that these transitions were not as awkward as first thought, and were most likely planned to say something else. Poem talks about the onion making a long journey, lots of effort being put in to getting it where its going. After this journey the onion is cut up, cooked with just about everything, then receives no recognition in the meal. The author calls the onion translucent, limp, and divided. I believe that translucent might not just be in the physical sense, but also in that even though physically seen no one pays it any attention.
By the end of class I had taken new meaning from the poem. The simple poem about you average garden variety herb now was talking about appreciating the smaller things in life. Most of what we have we tend to take for granted not realizing all that goes into providing us with the creature comforts that surround us in our world.