Transcript How is the wind personified?

Wind
Ted Hughes
Learning Objectives
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To understand the content of the poem ‘Wind’.
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To examine the use of imagery, personification, simile and
metaphors in the poem.
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To explore the power of nature and the vulnerability and
insignificance of humankind through the depiction of a
storm.
Starter: Read the poem and find the
following. Consider why they’re used.
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Examples of Alliteration
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Similes
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Metaphors
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Personification
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Imagery
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Verbs that create a sense of violence
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Eye/Vision Imagery
This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Look at the opening line – what can you say
about it?
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet
Till day rose; then under an orange sky
Identify the verbs – what is their significance?
What’s the significance of the simile in stanza
2?
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.
At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as
How is the wind personified?
Why does the poet say he ‘scaled’ the side of
the house? What kind of word is this?
The coal-house door. Once I looked up Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes
The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,
How is the metaphor of the house as a boat
continued?
The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,
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Comment on the disturbing imagery in stanza 4,
how does it add to the impression already created
of the wind?
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How does the alliteration affect the way we read
this stanza?
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Identify the simile in stanza 5 – what is its
significance?
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Comment on the personification of the windows
and stones in the final stanza. Why are they
personified and what does it show?
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What do you think is the message of the poem?
At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;
The wind flung a magpie away and a blackBack gull bent like an iron bar slowly. 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 (1966)
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Structure: 6 X quatrains of equal
length.
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The poem is written in the first
person, giving an account of
the poet’s personal experience.
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The first four stanzas are in the
past tense, while the last two
are in the present tense. This
gives a sense of how long the
storm has been raging.
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The poet constantly uses
enjambment to show the
continuous, relentless progress
of the enervating storm.
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Nature poem – but not one that
aspires to traditional pastoral
conventions.
But at the end of the poem, he
changes from “I” to “WE”;
showing that he is not alone in
facing the storm
Sea Metaphor – house feels like
a boat at sea. Creates a sense
of isolation.
The opening line here reveals
distance, time as well as the
environment.
These images have a quality of
a nightmare about them and
the verb ‘floundering’ creates
a feeling of futility.
Violent Verbs: crashing, booming,
stampeding, floundering and
blinding. The wind is elevated to
biblical proportions.
Personification: the wood and
the winds are personified.
Wind is changing the landscape/
changing nature of the sea.
Personification – makes it sound
like the wind is doing battle with
the landscape.
Simile – refers back to the sea
metaphor, the stormy sky here is
rapidly changing – ‘flexing’
The verb ‘scaled’ sounds
perilous, not simply walking but
akin to climbing a mountain.
Mad here has connotations of
being unpredictable and
unreasonable
Guy rope - a cable, wire, or
rope that is used to brace
something (especially a tent).
Gives impression house is flimsy
against the might of nature.
Metaphor – the hills are likened to
tents or sails on ship. Keeps the
extended metaphor of the house
as a ship going throughout the
past tense stanzas of the poem.
Personification of the fields here
creates impression that the wind
is a bully.
Imagery – the violence of the
personified wind is disturbing, almost
evil as it carelessly tosses bird aside.
Alliteration – this slowed reading
pace reflects the progress of the
bird and its difficulty fighting the
wind.
Simile of gull ‘bent like an iron bar’
adds to this disturbing and violent
imagery and adds to the
personification of the wind.
The Poet moves from the first
person singular (I) to the first
person plural (we) and it’s clear
that the poet and his
companion are paralysed by
the wind
Simile – the house has so far stood up
to the onslaught but it is a finely
balanced and fragile situation that
could be shattered any second.
Feeling of destruction continues - it
‘rang’ like an echo and stays a while.
Theme: Respect for nature’s
weapons. In some instances
respect turns to terror as if hiding
from some omnipotent tyrant.
Personification of the window
trembling and the stones crying out in
the final lines reveals how even
inanimate objects are displaying fear
and distress. Also, as one item in
man-made and the other natural,
one could argue that nature doesn’t
differentiate and is an equal
opportunities bully!
Other
Interpretations
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Hughes was married to Plath who
killed herself – he said that “she
had been on that track for most
of her life”.
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The Wind has been described as
an extended metaphor for their
relationship.
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The weakness of the people and
the house could represent her
lack of emotional stability.
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The fragility of the hills, house and
windows could be a metaphor for
how fragile their relationship was.