A Stone

I am not convinced the central metaphor in the song, "a stone" is meant to mean a grave stone though I am sure the fact that a grave stone comes to mind is no accident. An emotionless unavailable person you want a relationship with is a lot like wanting to be with someone or something that is dead an gone. The central metaphor is complex and not one-to-one as another poster pointed out.

I am surprised to see no one has thought of the stone as an unpolished, unintended, and accidental thing. The frustrated guy (Black Sheep Boy) is going out of his way to woo the girl he wants and getting nowhere while "a stone" who does nothing for her on purpose manages to catch her affection.

The general theme of the song, i think, has been nailed down as unrequited affection. The contrast between the stone and the lover, however, has yet to become clear. The lover (Black Sheep Boy, the character I see as the protagonist present in each song and who the album is all about) knows what the girl likes:

"Hot breath, rough skin, warm laughs, and smiling, the lovliest words, whispered and meant"

but does not give her what she loves:

"white veins, [...] hard grey, the heaviest weight, the clumsiest shape, the earthiest smell, the hollowest tone, [...] a stone."

The girl "likes" being loved and cared for, but "loves" wanting the things she cannot have. The shift in word choice is no accident. An inescapable irony emerges as you see the girl the narrator loves is a stone to him just as the guy the girl loves is a stone to her. The stone probably loves someone else not mentioned in the song. The real contrast in the song is varying attitudes lover, or potential lovers, take toward one another. We all want what we cannot have, don't understand, and drives us crazy. The human psyche is a messy place.

Black Sheep Boy is "found too fast [and] called too fond of flames" meaning he falls for girls too easily, gets burned again and again, and in a way seems to like it. Why else would he keep repeating the same mistake? He loves getting burned, not the girl.

The girl loves a stone "because it's dark and it's old," "because it's smooth and it's cold," or in other words because it is mysterious, damaged, worn down by experience, detached and indifferent to her beauty. The notion "that it's all ...[her] own" is what she really wants. If her stone "could start being alive" she'd "stop living alone." She is not any different than the Black Sheep Boy in her unrequited affection, and neither of them is very different from any of us who hear the song.

The last section of the song is a projection of the results of unrequited love.

"And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they're unable to know."

If the stone could love anyone he would wind up just like Black Sheep Boy, one of thousands of protectors of a girl that wants someone else. Black Sheep Boy wants to think that if the stone could show the girl some real feeling she would not want him anymore.

And the cycle will continue on through the generations "when the queens daughter c[o]me[s] of age." Many will want her, but the one she wants will be nothing special, doesn't try to win her, and completely unavailable.