The Stone
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson · Non-African poetry — England · WAEC set text 2026–2030
What it is doing
A rural, hard poem. A stone, labour, and a death (or the weight of one) sit at the centre. Gibson’s war and village poems are plain, and the plainness is the point.
What to listen for
Ballad-like plain diction; a physical object standing for grief or guilt; understatement.
In the exam
Do not decorate your answer. Match the poem’s plainness. Say what the stone is doing in the poem, not what stones “symbolise” in general.