Nerval touches the rough stone of a garden wall.

Under the bark of stones

Gérard de Nerval (1808–1855) was a French poet. In the sonnet Vers dorés he confronts a man who believes himself the only thinking being with animals, flowers and even a wall.

A different look at a wall

A gaze may be waiting for the observer inside the blind wall. The final tercet pursues the thought. Stone acquires a bark; beneath it something grows, as unseen as an eye beneath closed lids.

Often a hidden god dwells in the obscure being;
and like a nascent eye covered by its lids,
a pure spirit grows beneath the bark of stones.[1]

Respect for what is hidden

The images leave the nature of this spirit open. The poem’s demand is more practical: someone who does not know what goes on inside other things cannot so readily put them to just any use.