The British poet Ted Hughes published "Wind" in his 1957 collection The Hawk in the Rain. The poem's speaker is both terrified of and mesmerized by a wild, destructive wind, which ravages the landscape and threatens to rip the speaker's house from its foundation. "Wind" evokes not only the sheer force of nature, which eclipses anything humans are capable of, but also the storminess of human relationships. Like many of Hughes's poems, "Wind" is bleak in tone and relies on hard, punchy sounds as well as vivid, visceral imagery.
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The Full Text of “Wind”
The Full Text of “Wind”
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“Wind” Summary
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“Wind” Themes
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Humanity vs. Nature
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-18
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The Storminess of Human Relationships
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 18-24
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Wind”
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Lines 1-4
This house has ...
... and blinding wet -
Lines 5-8
Till day rose; ...
... a mad eye. -
Lines 9-12
At noon I ...
... strained its guyrope, -
Lines 13-14
The fields quivering, ...
... with a flap: -
Lines 15-18
The wind flung ...
... it. Now deep -
Lines 19-21
In chairs, in ...
... the fire blazing, -
Lines 22-24
And feel the ...
... under the horizons.
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“Wind” Symbols
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Wind
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3
- Lines 6-8
- Lines 11-24
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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.”
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“Wind” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Consonance
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”
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Assonance
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”
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Alliteration
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”
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Imagery
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Lines 1-8
- Lines 9-16
- Lines 17-24
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Simile
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.”
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Metaphor
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”
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Personification
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.”
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Enjambment
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”
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“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
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(Location in poem: Line 3: “Winds stampeding the fields under the window”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Wind”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Wind” Speaker
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“Wind” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Wind”
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More “Wind” Resources
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External Resources
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Ted Hughes's Life and Work — Check out a biography of the poet and additional poems via the Poetry Foundation.
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Hughes and Plath — Listen to a 1961 interview with Ted Hughes and his wife, poet Sylvia Plath, for the BBC.
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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.
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British Library Archives — Additional resources on Hughes's work from the British Library.
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A Reading of the Poem — Hear the poem read aloud by British actor Christopher Naylor.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes
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