These are the proper names: Limestone, tufa, coral rag, Clint, beer stone, braystone, Porphyry, gneiss, rhyolite, Ironstone, cairngorm, circle stone, Blue stone, chalk, box stone, Sarsen, magnesia, brownstone, Flint, aventurnine, Soapstone, alabaster, basalt, Slate, quartzite, ashlar, Clunch, cob, gault, grit, Buhrstone, dolomite, Flagstone, freestone, sandstone, Marble, shale, gabbro, clay, Adamant, gravel, traprock, And of course brimstone. Some of the names are shapes: Crag, scarp, moraine, esker, Alp, hogback, ledge, tor, Cliff, boulder, crater, Gorge, and bedrock. Some denote uses: Keystone, capstone, Hearthstone, whetstone, And gravestone. For women a painful stone called Wombstone, which doctors say is "A calculus formed in the uterus." Gallstone and kidneystone hurt everyone. Millstone is our blessing. I will not say the names Of the misnamed precious stones. But a lovely name is gold, A product of stone. Underwards is magma; May all who read this live long. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CENSUS-TAKER by ROBERT FROST EPITAPH: IN OBITUM M.S. XO MAIJ, 1614 by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) MONADNOC by RALPH WALDO EMERSON OPEN, TIME by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY THE WIND IN A FROLIC by WILLIAM HOWITT UPON HIS PICTURE by THOMAS RANDOLPH |