“I can’t live without it!”; people’s needs range from sophisticated machines to simple bulbs. The poems “The Sacred” by Stephen Dunn and “The Traveling Onion” by Naomi Shihab Nye observe the car and onion to be inevitable necessities. Dunn’s poem examines the car and the repose it offers, while Nye’s poem examines the onion’s paramount place on the palate. The speaker in “The Sacred” could be a teacher with a third person point of view. The listener could perhaps be a student or teacher. The setting is a classroom. The situation is a young man’s confession that his sacred place is a car. The speaker in “The Traveling Onion” is a woman. The listener could be a person or a group of people because of the pronoun “we” (13). The setting is the kitchen because the onion is sliced for a stew. The situation allows the speaker to ponder both the history and usefulness of the onion and also the lack of recognition it receives despite its presence on the palate. Though the car and onion are everyday objects, they are indispensable to people.

Since its invention, the car has grown very popular. It began as a luxurious alternative to the horse and buggy, but has now become a common sight. As the conveniences of owning a car grew in the twentieth century, the comforts offered by the car grew as well. The increase in automobile technology made the car more than a vehicle. The car promised such a comfort that people lavished their time, money and energy on it and in it. This is the situation in “The Sacred” by Stephen Dunn. The teacher asks the students for a “sacred place” (2); their personal spaces where they do not mask the true color of their natures. While the class is uneasy about confessing, a “most serious” (4) young man declares his unusual affinity for his car. His car was more than just a car; it was his indispensable object of adoration and reliance. The alliteration “a car could” (15) explains why he adored it. The car could do anything for him. His car was his way out from his responsibilities, and he pampered it because its four wheels could do many things for him. The slight touch of the accelerator sped him away from festering problems. The enjambment “and sometimes . . . a car could take him from the need / to speak” signifies a long drive without a pause (12-16). He could disappear for periods of time without stopping-the freedom he got was quick, easy and comfortable. The length of   the line is controlled, with a sequence of long lines alternating with indented short ones. This indicates that just as the driver alone exerts control over his vehicle, this man was the boss of his life once he was in his car. The alternating long and short lines indicate that he could control the situation of his life by going according to his pace. Also, the luxury of listening to “his tape deck playing” was untradeable (6). The symphony from his tape deck drowned the world outside. He was the conductor of his tape deck. He controlled the crescendos, fortissimos and pianos of his life. He was the driver-the master of his own space. No one can control a driver from outside the vehicle, and similarly no one could control him or demand anything from him in his car. He was magnified by his car when he was in it. It was his object of honor, a sacred place, and he couldn’t live without it.