“The Stone” is an eleven-stanza tragic poem composed by W.W Gibson. It is about a young woman who is in shock because of the sudden death of her lover.
Her lover is a quarry worker and is struck to death by a big stone in the quarry.
The young woman receives the news shockingly from some fools who rush to break the news to her before the poet reaches her.
This is why the woman was in total shock for a complete three days. She just opened her eyes down seeing everything but couldn’t sleep. When the mother of her lover wept, she couldn’t.
She goes to the poet to cut a stone for her lover. The poet was afraid to look at her grey eyes. He feels as if the eyes are taking his breath away from his heart.
The woman feels fulfilled after the stone is successfully cut for her lover and dies.
About the Poet- Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson was born on the 2nd of October 1878 in Hexham, Northumberland, England. He attended Hexham Grammar School and Armstrong College in Newcastle.
After Gibson left college, he worked in a bank as a clerk briefly before engaging himself in poetry writing. His first collection of poetry titled “Urlyn the Harper” was published in 1903.
Gibson participated in World War 1, where he served as an ambulance driver in France and Belgium. This experience influenced his works on poetry later.
After the war, he continued writing poetry, was involved in the theater, writing plays, and at the same time working as a director and producer.
In 1930, Gibson began writing poetry that reflected his political views as he was interested in the socialist movement. He published numerous collections of poetry.
In the 1950s, Gibson was forced to give up theater work and writing due to ill health.
He received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955. He died in his home in Tyndale, Northumberland on the 26th of May, 1962 at the age of 83.
The Poetic Meanings of Some Difficult Words and Expressions in the Poem
Cut a stone for him- Make a tombstone for him
To set above his head- To put on his tomb
He loitered- Still hanging around
Blurted out the news- Delivered the news without thought
Sank upon a chair- Sat on a chair
Save the mallet stroke- Except the sounds of the mallet
Overwearied hands- Weaken hands
Death cut still deeper in her heart- She is dying.
The Stone- Stanza by Stanza Analysis
The poem starts abruptly in stanza one on the third day of the unfortunate incident discussed in the poem.
Three days earlier, the lover of a young woman was struck to death by a rock in a stone quarry. The woman then comes to the poet to cut a stone for him.
The narrative starts in the second stanza. Three days earlier, the lover was struck dead by a rock in a stone quarry against all the warnings and shots fired.
He is described as a fully grown-up man, full of life. The rock fell suddenly and was found dead under the rock.
The lifeless body covered with clay lay there like a stone. The man’s eyes saw everything that happened, including his own end.
In the third and fourth stanza, the poet that saw the unfortunate incident went to break the news to his lover.
But he is afraid to break the news to the woman because he didn’t know the right words to use in such circumstances.
On getting there, the poet realized that some poor fellow had already broken the sad news to the woman.
The fellow just came straight to her father’s house to break the news without thinking of the consequences.
The woman, on hearing the news, became still like a stone and the people rushed out leaving her in that condition.
She was alone when the poet arrived and couldn’t alter any word. The poet instantly knew that the woman knew everything that happened.
In the fifth stanza, because the woman was out of her mind, she couldn’t cry nor moan. The mother of her lover wept, she couldn’t weep.
For three days and nights, she was inactive and didn’t sleep. She just opened down her eyes looking; she saw everything.
The sixth stanza is on the fourth night of the incident. When the poet came back from work, she met the woman waiting for him at his door. She asked the poet, “And will you cut a stone for him?”
She didn’t say more than that and she followed the poet inside. She sat on a chair and fixed her grey eyes on the poet waiting patiently.
When the poet saw the grey eyes staring at him, he felt as if those eyes were plucking his heart and sucking the breath from him. The eye froze him to the bone.
In stanzas seven and eight, the poet stood up immediately and started cutting the stone in a square. The woman sat beside the poet in her own chair watching everything day and night.
As the poet cut her lover’s name, she was watching each stroke but didn’t utter any word nor make any sound or murmured. It’s only the sound of the stroke that was heard.
In stanza nine, her eyes were fixed on the weakened hands of the poet, watching him with bloodless lips, breathing inwardly.
Every stroke cut by the chisel made a deeper cut to her heart; the woman was dying gradually.
“And every stroke my chisel cut
Death cut still deeper in her heart:
The two of us were chiselling,
Together, I and Death.”
In stanza ten, when the poet finished his work, as if she was satisfied, she breathed her lover’s name and with a sigh passed slowly through the door and never came to him again.
In the last stanza, the next night, the poet worked very late alone because he was cutting the name of the woman on the stone; she was dead.
The Stone- Themes
Love: The love that is discussed in this poem is not an ordinary love but a genuine passionate one. The love is between the young woman and her lover.
The woman so loves her man that she loses her mind the moment she hears about his death. She is shocked and for three days couldn’t sleep, cry or utter any statements.
To show the depth of love, the first thing she thought of was cutting a stone for his lover. That is why she ran to the poet’s house and made sure the tombstone was cut.
The woman showed her satisfaction when the poet was done with the stone. It was then she breathed his name and left the poet’s house.
“And when at length my job was done
And I had laid the mallet by,
As if, at last, her peace were won,
She breathed his name, and, with a sigh
Pass slowly through the open door:”
Despite her condition, she still thought of cutting the stone for her love. Since that was the only thing she could do to give him the last respect.
The death of the woman on the second day shows that her life is meaningless without her lover. It shows the type of love between the two lovers.
Tragedy: “The Stone” is a tragic poem because of the death of the young woman’s lover and the circumstances that surround his death.
Also, the news of the death of the lover drains the woman and it eventually leads to her death.
From the moment she hears about the death of her lover, she runs out of her mind and her body chemistry changes. It was a tragic situation for her, hence she eventually died of the shock.
The fact that the man still have a mother makes the incident a tragic one.
It is a sad occurrence for a mother to mourn her children. We are told in the poem that the mother of the lover wept.
Careless Talk: This theme added to the tragic occurrence already on ground in the poem.
After the death of the man, some people the poet described as “pure fool” have gone ahead to tell the woman about the unfortunate incident.
They didn’t think of the consequences of the senseless act, they delivered the message and left immediately.
The message turned the woman into a different being; she couldn’t talk, cry or sleep. The suddenness of the message gave her a shock and she died eventually.
Carelessness: The lover in the poem died due to carelessness on his part. He wouldn’t have died if he had yielded to the warning earlier given in the quarry about the impending blast. He wouldn’t have delayed running to safety after the warning.
“Had struck him in the quarry dead,
Where, careless of a warning call,
He loitered, while the shot was fired”
Fear: After the man was crushed to death by the rock, the poet prepared to go and break the ugly incident to the man’s lover.
But the fear of what to say and how to present it gripped him. He later discovered that the news has been broken to her.
“I went to break the news to her:
And I could hear my own heart beat
With dread of what my lips might say:”
Another instance of fear in the poem is when the woman goes to the house of the poet on the fourth night. She goes there to request the poet to cut a stone for her lover.
She follows the poet inside and sits on a chair, fixing her grey eyes on the poet. But, because of her faint appearance and the grey eyes, the poet entertains fear to look at her straight in the eyes.
“But followed me, as I went in,
And sank upon a chair;
And fix her grey eyes on my face,
Will still, unseeing stare
And, as she waited patiently,
I could not bear to feel
Those still, grey eyes that followed me,
Those eyes that plucked the heart from me”
Death: Two deaths are recorded in this poem and one leads to the other. It is so because the two are lovers. The first one is a man, a lover who died carelessly in a stone quarry.
The man was crushed to death by a rock despite the warning calls from the operators. He was loitering about when the shot was fired.
The second death is a woman; the lover of the man killed by the rock. The way the news of the death of her lover was delivered to her was sudden.
She was immediately out of her mind and went into a shock which she never came out of until she died.
The Stone- Poetic Devices
Rhetorical Questions: This is an expression put in the form of a question. We have this in stanza one where the woman requests from the poet to cut a stone for her lover.
“And will you cut a stone for him,
To set above his head?”
It is also in stanza 6, line 52 to be specific. On the fourth night, the woman goes to request the poet to cut a stone for her lover. It is the same request as we have in the first stanza.
Alliteration: This device is used in poems for sound effects; it is a figure of sound. In alliteration, a consonant is pronounced at the beginning of two or more words in a line of a poem.
We have this in lines 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 41, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, 53, 57, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 77, 80, 84, 87, 92, 95, 96.
Metaphor: This is a direct comparison of two things without the use of “as” and “like.”
A metaphor doesn’t liken something to another but says this is this and that is that. Metaphor is in lines;
16- A lifeless heap, with face of clay. (This describes the man’s dead body).
32 – A woman turned to stone.
92- As if, at last, her peace were won,
Simile: This literary device compares two things with the use of “like” or “as.” It is used in lines;
17- And still as any stone he lays
64- And cut my marrow like cold still.
72- And like a ghost she came.
Personification: In this literary device, the inanimate is given the attributes of the animate. This brings more life to poems or any literary text. We have it in lines;
35- Because her heart was dead, (describing the changes in the woman after receiving the news.
60- Those still, grey eyes that followed me,
61- Those eyes that plucked the heart from me
62- And cuddled the warm blood in me,
63- Those eyes that cut me to the bone.
These personifications are used to describe while the poet could not look the woman in the eyes.
Personification is also in line;
87- Death cut still deeper in her heart: (This describes how the woman dies gradually).
Hyperbole: This literary device is otherwise known as exaggeration. This is when an event or occurrence is exaggerated more than necessary. We have it in line;
82- With eyes that seemed to burn my hands. (This describes the eyes of the woman).
Oxymoron: This is a literary device, where two contradictory words are placed side by side in an expression. It is used in “The Stone” in line 27.
“Had struck life, lifeless, at a word,”
The poet is describing the effects of the sudden news of the death of the lady’s lover on her.
This is after the “pure fool” delivered the shocking news to her. It means that the news made the living woman lifeless.
Antithesis: This is the use of two contradictory expressions side by side in an expression. A good example of this is in line 49 of the poem.
“That seeing naught, saw all.”
This describes the bereaved woman’s vision when the poet went to break the news to her.
Mood: The mood of the poem is sad and very tense. The poem is a tragic one because of the sudden death of the man.
The way the unfortunate incident was relayed to the lover made the mood more tense.
The woman was in total shock the moment she received the news. She wore a sad mood that she couldn’t talk, cry or sleep for three days.