Exploring Ted Hughes’ ‘Wind’
Among Ted Hughes’ most celebrated works, ‘Wind’ stands out, rivaling the impact of ‘The Thought-Fox’. This poem is part of his debut collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), and it captures the raw power of a fierce gale as it sweeps through the landscape. Hughes vividly illustrates the wind’s effects, from the behavior of birds to the very ground beneath our feet. Below, we provide a detailed summary of ‘Wind’ alongside an analysis of its themes and language.
Summary
The poem opens with the speaker describing the experience of taking refuge in a house battered by the wind. The force of the gale is so overwhelming that it feels as if the house is adrift on a turbulent sea, with the wind crashing against it in the night, reverberating off the hills and hammering on the fields. This tempestuous storm, which includes both rain and wind, rages until dawn.
As the sun rises, it appears as though the hills have been repositioned by the wind, creating an illusion of movement in the landscape. The wind is depicted with a sharp, brilliant light, akin to the edge of a knife or a fine gemstone, suggesting both beauty and danger. In a striking personification, the wind is described as a living entity, akin to a madman whose eye sparkles with madness.
In the third stanza, the speaker ventures outside at midday to assess the damage inflicted by the storm. However, the wind’s ferocity is such that it feels as though it could physically injure him, ‘denting’ his vision as he struggles to maintain his footing. The hills appear as if they might detach from the earth, and the fields tremble under the wind’s might. The horizon seems to bear a frown, hinting at the ominous potential of the storm, as if the entire world could be swallowed up in darkness.
At one point, the wind easily tosses a magpie aside, and it bends a gull into an unnatural shape. The house itself produces a sound reminiscent of a goblet being struck, threatening to shatter. The occupants of the house huddle in front of the fire, attempting to maintain their courage against the relentless storm. Yet, the wind infiltrates their thoughts, making it impossible for them to engage with a book or find solace in conversation. They are too consumed by the chaos surrounding them.
Instead, they sit in silence, fixated on the flickering flames of the fire, as the house seems to vibrate at its foundations. The windows tremble as if they too are terrified and yearning to escape the storm. They can hear the very stones of the earth lamenting beneath the oppressive skyline.
Analysis
T. S. Eliot once remarked that Charles Baudelaire, in depicting the ‘sordid elements of the great metropolis’, managed to elevate these details to a heightened intensity. This concept can similarly be applied to Ted Hughes’ poetry, which conveys the natural world with a stark realism while simultaneously infusing it with an intensity that approaches the divine.
In ‘Wind’, the imagery is striking: the windows of the house desire to seek refuge from the cruel wind, while the gull, compared to ‘an iron bar’, is resilient yet still succumbs to the wind’s might. The initial comparison of the wind to tumultuous ocean waves sets the tone for the rest of the poem, depicting nature’s formidable force.
This technique can be likened to Expressionism, a movement that Hughes may have encountered through his literary idol, D. H. Lawrence. Expressionist art distorts reality to express the artist’s emotions, and while Hughes describes the effects of the wind with unflinching honesty, he employs imagery that magnifies the wind’s power. This not only emphasizes the wind’s threat to the natural world but also symbolizes the instability of human life, as represented by the house.
The term ‘wind’ recurs throughout the poem, appearing four times directly and seven times if we consider the repeated mention of ‘window’. Hughes’ language flows with an unrelenting cadence, and aside from the second stanza, the poem is marked by a continuous progression, mirroring the unceasing nature of the wind itself.
Form
‘Wind’ is structured in unrhymed quatrains, but it would be misleading to categorize it as pure ‘free verse’. Hughes employs a unique structure that incorporates elements of pararhyme and consonance, creating a sense of order within the apparent chaos. This technique allows for a looser style while maintaining an underlying artistry.
For example, in the second stanza, the words ‘sky’ and ‘eye’ form a perfect rhyme, while ‘wielded’ and ‘emerald’ demonstrate a consonant relationship. Similarly, in the third stanza, ‘as’ and ‘eyes’ resonate through consonance, alongside the plosive sounds of ‘up’ and ‘guyrope’. This careful crafting gives the poem a fluidity that mirrors the unpredictable nature of the wind itself, while concealing the intricate artistry behind the vivid imagery of a tumultuous natural phenomenon.