Ordinary Words
Ruth Stone’s poem “Ordinary Words” is the title
poem of her 1999 collection Ordinary Words. A
mere seventeen lines, the poem is broken into two
stanzas of eleven and six free-verse lines respec-
tively. The first stanza consists of the speaker’s
reminiscence of a time when she hurt another per-
son with her words and a description of the pain
and regret she continues to feel for that act, even
though the person is now dead. The second stanza
is a simile, comparing the music of an ancient reed
(i.e., a flute) with the ability of a blind bird to re-
call its grief.
Stone uses common language in the poem. It
is not full of literary allusions or references to high
art. She is known for depicting in a direct manner
the everyday experiences of joy and sorrow that all
human beings experience. Stone’s style makes the
poem accessible to a wide audience. The lament she
expresses in the poem is for her husband, novelist
and poet Walter B. Stone, who committed suicide
by hanging himself in 1959. Ordinary words refers
to both Stone’s own poetic vocabulary and to the
name she called her husband at the beginning of the
poem. The phrase suggests that ordinary words have
the power to do great harm to others.Author Biography
Ruth Stone has often been called “a poet’s poet,”
though this has more to do with her relative ob-Ruth Stone
1999
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