“Wind” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Wind”

“Wind” Summary

“Wind” Themes

• 

  Humanity vs. Nature

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-18
• 

  The Storminess of Human Relationships

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 18-24

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Wind”

• Lines 1-4

  This house has ...
  ... and blinding wet

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Till day rose; ...
  ... a mad eye.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  At noon I ...
  ... strained its guyrope,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  The fields quivering, ...
  ... with a flap:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-18

  The wind flung ...
  ... it. Now deep

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-21

  In chairs, in ...
  ... the fire blazing,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 22-24

  And feel the ...
  ... under the horizons.

  

  

  

  

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“Wind” Symbols

• 

  Wind

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 3
  • Lines 6-8
  • Lines 11-24
• 

  The House

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “This house has been far out at sea all night,”
  • Lines 16-24: “The house / Rang like some fine green goblet in the note / That any second would shatter it. Now deep / In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip / Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought, / Or each other. We watch the fire blazing, / And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on, / Seeing the window tremble to come in, / Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.”

“Wind” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where consonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “house has”
  • Line 2: “woods crashing,” “darkness”
  • Line 3: “Winds stampeding,” “fields under,” “window”
  • Line 4: “Floundering black astride and blinding wet”
  • Line 6: “hills had,” “wind wielded”
  • Line 7: “Blade-light, luminous black,” “emerald”
  • Line 8: “Flexing like,” “lens”
  • Line 9: “scaled along,” “house-side”
  • Line 10: “coal-house,” “Once,” “looked”
  • Line 11: “brunt wind,” “dented,” “balls”
  • Line 12: “tent,” “drummed,” “strained”
  • Line 13: “quivering,” “skyline”
  • Line 14: “second,” “with,” “flap”
  • Line 15: “wind flung,” “away”
  • Lines 15-16: “black- / Back gull bent like”
  • Line 16: “bar,” “slowly,” “house”
  • Line 17: “like some fine green goblet”
  • Line 18: “second”
  • Line 19: “front,” “great,” “fire,” “grip”
  • Line 20: “hearts”
  • Line 21: “We watch,” “fire,” “blazing”
  • Line 22: “feel,” “sit”
  • Line 23: “Seeing,” “come”
  • Line 24: “stones”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “house,” “out”
  • Line 4: “astride,” “blinding”
  • Line 7: “emerald”
  • Line 8: “Flexing,” “lens”
  • Line 10: “up”
  • Line 11: “brunt,” “dented,” “my eyes”
  • Line 12: “tent,” “drummed”
  • Line 13: “quivering,” “grimace”
  • Line 14: “flap”
  • Line 15: “magpie,” “black”
  • Line 16: “Back”
  • Line 22: “roots,” “move”

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “booming”
  • Line 3: “Winds,” “window”
  • Line 4: “black,” “blinding,” “wet”
  • Line 6: “wind,” “wielded”
  • Line 7: “luminous”
  • Line 8: “lens”
  • Line 14: “flap”
  • Line 15: “flung,” “black”
  • Line 16: “Back,” “bent,” “bar”
  • Line 17: “green,” “goblet”
  • Line 19: “great,” “grip”
  • Line 22: “sit”
  • Line 23: “Seeing”
  • Line 24: “stones”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-8
  • Lines 9-16
  • Lines 17-24

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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  Where simile appears in the poem:

  • Line 8: “Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.”
  • Lines 15-16: “and a black- / Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly.”
  • Lines 16-18: “The house / Rang like some fine green goblet in the note / That any second would shatter it.”

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “This house has been far out at sea all night,”
  • Lines 6-7: “and wind wielded / Blade-light”
  • Lines 12-14: “The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope, / The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace, / At any second to bang and vanish with a flap:”
  • Line 22: “And feel the roots of the house move”

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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  Where personification appears in the poem:

  • Lines 6-7: “and wind wielded / Blade-light”
  • Line 13: “The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,”
  • Line 15: “The wind flung a magpie away”
  • Lines 23-24: “Seeing the window tremble to come in, / Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.”

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 3-4: “window / Floundering”
  • Lines 4-5: “wet / Till”
  • Lines 5-6: “sky / The”
  • Lines 6-7: “wielded / Blade-light”
  • Lines 9-10: “as / The”
  • Lines 11-12: “eyes / The”
  • Lines 15-16: “black- / Back”
  • Lines 16-17: “house / Rang”
  • Lines 17-18: “note / That”
  • Lines 18-19: “deep / In”
  • Lines 19-20: “grip / Our”

“Wind” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Stampeding
• Astride
• Floundering
• Wielded
• Blade-light
• Luminous
• Coal-house
• Scaled
• House-side
• Brunt
• Guyrope
• Grimace
• Magpie
• Black-back gull
• Goblet
• Entertain

• (Location in poem: Line 3: “Winds stampeding the fields under the window”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Wind”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Wind” Speaker

“Wind” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Wind”

More “Wind” Resources

• External Resources

  • Ted Hughes's Life and Work — Check out a biography of the poet and additional poems via the Poetry Foundation.

  • Hughes and Plath — Listen to a 1961 interview with Ted Hughes and his wife, poet Sylvia Plath, for the BBC. 

  • The Hawk in the Rain — An essay by Heather Clark about Hughes's first poetry collection, The Hawk in the Rain, via The Ted Hughes Society.

  • British Library Archives — Additional resources on Hughes's work from the British Library. 

  • A Reading of the Poem — Hear the poem read aloud by British actor Christopher Naylor. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes

  • A Memory

  • Anniversary

  • A Picture of Otto

  • Bayonet Charge

  • Cat and Mouse

  • Football at Slack

  • Fulbright Scholars

  • Full Moon and Little Frieda

  • Hawk Roosting

  • Relic

  • Roe-Deer

  • Snowdrop

  • Telegraph Wires

  • The Harvest Moon

  • The Horses

  • The Jaguar

  • The Other

  • The Shot

  • The Thought Fox