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Poet: Ted Hughes
Poem: Wind
Poem of the Day on:
Aug 18 2006
Comment 4 of 4, added on July 25th, 2006 at 8:51 PM.
The poem begins with the metaphor of the house as a ship, and further metaphors (the woods crashing, the hills booming) convey that the house has been battered all night as if by powerful waves, as if dragged through the sea by stampeding wet black horses. Even the dawn does not bring peace, and the wind goes on battering like a mad man raising a blade in the sharp light. The house is like a crystal goblet which could be shattered by the loud singing of the wind--and the people inside, probably a couple, cannot tolerate anything, including each other, as the wind keeps on threatening, and there is the danger at the heart of the poem, the couple who wish for the fire to be comforting and yet are disquieted by its howling. The only dim sort of comfort may be to know that even the house and its windows want to surrender to the wind, even the stones cry out under its punishment, so that in that sense, all the world is brought together as one under the wind's lash.
Gregory Donovan from United States
Comment 3 of 4, added on July 20th, 2006 at 8:36 PM.
This is a deep poem. On the one hand, the temptation is to read it as a literal poem, but the first line is too disturbing in its image to allow for a simplistic reading. The house is like a ship lost at sea. Even after the initial "storm" and lack of foundation, more destruction comes. "Rang like some fine green goblet" hints an image of a green-eyed monster. The sound is fragile, as if almost ready to break.
Color is used with great variation; there are many objects that produce sound, and nature is constantly shifting. I'm sure each bird in the poem has further meaning/symbolism.
Note how many times "eye" is used,each with a level of distortion.
Every detail is crafted with the sense of shifting.
dallas from United States
Comment 2 of 4, added on May 20th, 2006 at 2:32 PM.
this poem has been noted as representative of the relationship Ted had with his wife, Sylvia. note that she was emotionally unstable. it is a depiction of the power relationship between trhe physical domination of nature and the fragility of humans.
r.J
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The poem begins with the metaphor of the house as a ship, and further metaphors (the woods crashing, the hills booming) convey that the house has been battered all night as if by powerful waves, as if dragged through the sea by stampeding wet black horses. Even the dawn does not bring peace, and the wind goes on battering like a mad man raising a blade in the sharp light. The house is like a crystal goblet which could be shattered by the loud singing of the wind--and the people inside, probably a couple, cannot tolerate anything, including each other, as the wind keeps on threatening, and there is the danger at the heart of the poem, the couple who wish for the fire to be comforting and yet are disquieted by its howling. The only dim sort of comfort may be to know that even the house and its windows want to surrender to the wind, even the stones cry out under its punishment, so that in that sense, all the world is brought together as one under the wind's lash.
Gregory Donovan from United States