<P> The pebble, with its solid and hard structure represents being hardened by the experience of love, and has, according to Joseph Heffner has gained authority through that experience . The pebble views love as something that is selfish . It also according to Joseph Heffner the use of the word "bind" by the pebble "suggests a sort of aggressive, violent and masculine view of love ." </P> <P> The last stanza of the poem the pebble's view of selfish love was used as the epigraph for Evelyn Scott's 1921 novel The Narrow House According to Pat Tyler the women in this novel have been "hardened by her life experiences . Each is solely concerned with her own survival, hardened to the suffering of the others ." </P>

Poem the clod and the pebble by william blake