Poetry Appreciation. Critical Reading Oxford University 2024. Ted Hughes Wind.

                                                  WIND Ted Hughes.

Hughes uses quatrains and writes in free verse, no constraints, no rigidity. Stanza 1 opens with the shocking effects of the storm, speaking figuratively. A constant recurring motif is the landscape: woods, hills. fields and sea battling the wind, aspects of nature.

In l.12 he uses onomatopoeia with "crashing" and "booming" present participles, ongoing, auditory imagery. He personifies the strength of the wind with "stampeding" like an army perhaps? Precise details. It is also highlighted with "under the window" and "floundering." "Blinding" is used metaphorically indicating an inability to challenge the wind and rain, loss of vision. Is loss of sight caused through the incessant rain? Is this Hughes' paradox?

The poet uses enjambement frequently between stanzas to show continuity of destruction with stanza 1 merging into stanza 2 on time passing. Colour imagery, dark and menacing provide a visual aspect to the wild scene. Striking colours especially "luminous black and emerald" illustrate this. "Blade-light" suggests the wind is capable of damage like the sharpness of a blade. "Light" suggests the ease with which it can cause havoc. Hughes uses full-rhyme in this stanza with "sky" and "eye" perhaps highlighting the unnatural orange hue of the sky? He uses pentameter which is irregular to reflect the chaos in nature.

"Wind-yielded" is alliterative and coupled with "flexing" indicates movement followed by a simile of the camera image: "lens of a mad eye." The latter image suggests madness and chaos of what can be seen, namely the storm.

IN stanza 3 the persona, most probably the poet introduces himself with 1st person singular, actively involved in surveying the damage outside, experiencing the worst part: "the brunt wind" a recurring motif. He uses hyperbole to describe how "the balls of {his} eyes {were} dented." Further use of enjambement in l.11/12 with the metaphor "tent" to describe the shape of the hills and further onomatopoeia with "drummed" as it "strained."

In stanza 4 "quivering" suggests fear, the fields being personified, with a skyline looking painful "with a grimace." Nature is vulnerable. L.14 Hughes uses more onomatopoeia with "bang" and "flap." The birds are struggling with "flung"l.15 and the simile "bent like an iron bar" in describing the black back gull's struggle against the wind. By l.16 we sense the isolation of the house "far out at sea" with enjambement, the stanzas merging to show its fragility with the image of the "green goblet" inside likely to "shatter."

Reference to "we" probably indicates the persona's parents also sheltering inside, sitting out the storm, by the "great fire." Unable to challenge or control the wind, powerless against the destructive force of nature. The "roots" rather than foundations of the house, metaphorically "move" and personification is used to describe the window which "tremble{s} to come in, expressing fear.

Referring to "horizons" in the plural sense suggests the battle is a global one. "Seeing" and "hearing" are present participles suggesting passivity. Hughes' final line of the "stones cry{ing} suggests total despair, personification and is used metaphorically.

C.L.Naylor. Copyright 2025. Permission must be requested from the author before any of this poetry appreciation can be used.

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