The Stone Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CBBDEDECDCFFD GHFIIGGGEHFE JJBJ BJKLKLMGMGNNDND OIKIPQRQDDDDDDJD JQKQKSKSQS TKTKTT UUUKVKKTV WXWXII JJ

quot And will you cut a stone for himA
To set above his headB
And will you cut a stone for himA
A stone for him quot she saidB
-
Three days before a splintered rockC
Had struck her lover deadB
Had struck him in the quarry deadB
Where careless of a warning callD
He loitered while the shot was firedE
A lively stripling brave and tallD
And sure of all his heart desiredE
A flash a shockC
A rumbling fallD
And broken 'neath the broken rockC
A lifeless heap with face of clayF
And still as any stone he layF
With eyes that saw the end of allD
-
I went to break the news to herG
And I could hear my own heart beatH
With dread of what my lips might sayF
But some poor fool had sped beforeI
And flinging wide her father's doorI
Had blurted out the news to herG
Had struck her lover dead for herG
Had struck the girl's heart dead in herG
Had struck life lifeless at a wordE
And dropped it at her feetH
Then hurried on his witless wayF
Scarce knowing she had heardE
-
And when I came she stood aloneJ
A woman turned to stoneJ
And though no word at all she saidB
I knew that all was knownJ
-
Because her heart was deadB
She did not sigh nor moanJ
His mother weptK
She could not weepL
Her lover sleptK
She could not sleepL
Three days three nightsM
She did not stirG
Three days three nightsM
Were one to herG
Who never closed her eyesN
From sunset to sunriseN
From dawn to evenfallD
Her tearless staring eyesN
That seeing naught saw allD
-
The fourth night when I came from workO
I found her at my doorI
quot And will you cut a stone for him quotK
She said and spoke no moreI
But followed me as I went inP
And sank upon a chairQ
And fixed her grey eyes on my faceR
With still unseeing stareQ
And as she waited patientlyD
I could not bear to feelD
Those still grey eyes that followed meD
Those eyes that plucked the heart from meD
Those eyes that sucked the breath from meD
And curdled the warm blood in meD
Those eyes that cut me to the boneJ
And cut my marrow like cold steelD
-
And so I rose and sought a stoneJ
And cut it smooth and squareQ
And as I worked she sat and watchedK
Beside me in her chairQ
Night after night by candlelightK
I cut her lover's nameS
Night after night so still and whiteK
And like a ghost she cameS
And sat beside me in her chairQ
And watched with eyes aflameS
-
She eyed each strokeT
And hardly stirredK
she never spokeT
A single wordK
And not a sound or murmur brokeT
The quiet save the mallet strokeT
-
With still eyes ever on my handsU
With eyes that seemed to burn my handsU
My wincing overwearied handsU
She watched with bloodless lips apartK
And silent indrawn breathV
And every stroke my chisel cutK
Death cut still deeper in her heartK
The two of us were chisellingT
Together I and DeathV
-
And when at length my job was doneW
And I had laid the mallet byX
As if at last her peace were wonW
She breathed his name and with a sighX
Passed slowly through the open doorI
And never crossed my threshold moreI
-
Next night I laboured late aloneJ
To cut her name upon the stoneJ

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson



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