The Wind
Robert Louis Stevenson
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass--
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all--
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
Literary Devices
Throughout this poem, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited
to:
Enjambment: can be seen when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example,
the transition between lines one and two of the first stanza. The majority of the lines in this poem are
end-stopped.
Caesura: can be seen when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This can be accomplished
through the use of punctuation or through a natural pause in a line. For example: “I saw you toss the
kites on high.” There is a natural pause in this line between the first four syllables and the second four.
Personification: occurs when the poet imbues something nonhuman with human characteristics or
abilities. In this case, the poet describes the wind singing a song.
Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple lines.
For example, “sing” and “song” in the last line of every stanza, and “different” and “did” in the first line
of the second stanza.
Refrain: The last two lines are repeated at the end of each stanza. It is used as a refrain.
Simile: Stevenson uses this device in “Like ladies’ skirts across the grass” and “Or just a stronger child
than
Apostrophe: In the refrain, this device is used. It also occurs in the first two lines of the last stanza. In
these lines, the speaker evokes the spirit of the wind. me?”
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass–
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
In the first stanza of the poem, it becomes clear quite quickly that the speaker is talking to the wind. This
is known as an apostrophe. The speaker is talking to someone or something that is incapable of
responding or even hearing their words. The poet also immediately uses personification to describe the
wind in human-like terms.
The speaker notes how the wind moves things, like kites and birds, around the sky. By using imagery, the
poet also depicts the sound of the wind blowing across the grass and moving women’s skirts.
The first stanza, like all the following stanzas, ends with the same two lines. This concluding closed
couplet contains a textbook example of an apostrophe in that it begins with “O.”
Stanza Two
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all–
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
In the second stanza, the speaker continues to address the wind. Despite, perhaps, the wind’s attempts
to hide, the speaker is paying close attention. He has seen all the different things the wind has done.
This is despite the fact that the wind is always invisible. (The speaker sees the results of the wind’s
movements rather than the wind itself. The second stanza contains a great example of caesura: “I felt
you push, I heard you call.” There is a pause created through a natural stopping point in the meter and a
comma. Both sides of the statement also use “I.”
Stanza Three
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
In the final stanza, the speaker addresses the wind one last time. He asks the element questions, as a
child would. The speaker wonders if the wind is young or old, a “beast of field and tree” or “just a
stronger child than me.” It is in these lines that the speaker’s identity, as a child, is revealed. It makes the
inquisitive statements in the previous stanzas easier to understand.
Reading comprehension
1 What is the purpose of ‘The Wind?’
The purpose of this poem is to explore the nature of the wind. The speaker spends the three stanzas of
this poem describing the wind’s actions and, in the last stanza, asking the wind questions. Through
personification, the young speaker makes the wind an interesting character.
What is the tone of ‘The Wind?’
The tone is inquisitive and interesting. The young speaker is amazed by the winds’ actions. He keeps tabs
on it every time he sees it pass, moving the grass or kites in the sky. He wonders where it comes from
and what kind of creature it is.
Who is the speaker in ‘The Wind?’
The speaker is a young child. This is revealed in the third stanza. The identity of this child is unknown.
But, the poem is easy to understand without knowing the child’s specific identity.
What is the main idea of the poem “The Wind” by Robert Louis Stevenson?
The main idea of Stevenson’s poem concerns the things the wind does and a child’s inability to see it. He
goes on to describe its might. At last, he asks about its nature. Besides, the idea of nature’s permanence
and musicality is reiterated throughout the poem.
What is the meaning of the lines “Are you a beast of field and tree/ Or just a stronger child than me”?
In these lines, the wind is compared to a beast of nature at the same time a child stronger than the
speaker. The qualities of strength, wildness, and playfulness are invested in it.
What type of poem is “The Wind” by Robert Louis Stevenson?
It is a lyric poem that is written in a regular rhyme scheme and meter. There are a total of three stanzas
composed of the AABBCC rhyme scheme and iambic tetrameter.
When was “The Wind” by Robert Louis Stevenson written?
The poem is written around 1885. It was first published in A Child’s Garden of Verses in 1885.
What does “I saw you toss the kites on high” mean?
This line describes how the wind helps the kites to fly in the sky.
Why did the poet not see the wind?
The poet cannot see the wind as it is something to be felt, rather than seen.
Can you tell any two things that the wind does?
In Stevenson’s poem, the wind tosses the kites and blows the birds about the sky.
What does the wind symbolize?
The wind symbolizes the omnipresence, might, and boundless energy of nature. It also stands for the
musicality of creation.
What does the wind mean spiritually?
In this poem, the wind is invested with the qualities that apply to God. Hence, Stevenson implicitly
compares the wind to the almighty.
What does the wind metaphorically represent?
The wind metaphorically represents a beast of fields and trees. It also portrays childlike innocence and
playfulness.
THE DARKLING THRUSH
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
POETIC DEVICES:
Auditory Imagery: The scene depicted in the poem is one seemingly barren of all sound as well as life.
That all changes in the third stanza, when the speaker reveals that all “at once a voice arose” (17),
singing a song of limitless joy.
Visual Imagery: One of the arresting features of Hardy’s poem is the dreadful winter countryside. His
imagery of the land covered in a “Frost [that] was spectre-grey” (2) serves as both an explanation for its
dreariness and a symbol of the malaise that has taken root in society.
Metaphor: In the lines, “The land’s sharp features seemed to be / The Century’s corpse outleant” (9-10),
the speaker links the desolation of the landscape with the decline of the past century by referring to the
former as a carcass bereft of life.
Personification: At various points, Hardy personifies the sun and thrush as having human characteristics;
there’s the line, the “weakening eye of day” (4), and the conferment of intentionality and purpose in the
bird’s choice to “fling his soul / Upon the growing gloom” (23-24). This only makes the poet’s despairing
comparisons between the winter wasteland and civilization all the more affecting, further muddling the
line between nature and humanity in their stagnation.
Simile: There is also an example of simile in the line, “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky / Like
strings of broken lyres” (5-6), which imagines the spindly and seemingly leave-less limbs of the trees to
be the strings of smashed instruments.
Themes
‘The Darkling Thrush’ dwells on the desolation and hope that exists in a world where nothing seems to
grow, absent of not just life but the warmth of passion and feeling. This daunting scenery becomes an
extended metaphor for the last century, as well as the current state of civilization, as seen through the
eyes of Hardy’s speaker. It is a deterioration visualized through powerful symbols like a broken lyre
(music and culture), the image of families at home huddled around their fires (isolation), and the languid
“ancient pulse of germ and birth” (procreation). Hardy spends the first two stanzas lamenting over the
hauntingly depressing state of the winter landscape. In the last two stanzas, the song of an “aged thrush,
frail, gaunt, and small” is spread over the “growing gloom,” their trill so earnest and infinitely joyous
that it causes the speaker to wonder if maybe there is some hope left to be discovered in the world. The
poem ultimately carries a delicate but sincere promise that something good can suddenly appear.
Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
In the first stanza, we are introduced to the poet, in the first person, “I” He is leaning on a gate in a little
wood – it’s traditionally a thinking pose, and the poem conveys his thoughts and feelings. The bitter
hopelessness of a cold winter’s evening is stressed by the imagery: “Frost,” “spectre-gray,” “dregs,”
“desolate,” “weakening,” “broken,” and “haunted” are unified and strengthened by their suggestions of
cold, weakness, and death or ghostliness.
There are plenty of heavy, gloomy “g” sounds: “gate,” “gray,” “dregs,” and equally heavy “d” sounds:
“dregs,” “desolate,” and “day.” Even day, which might be cheering, is described as “desolate” and
having a “weakening eye.” The only color left in the “darkling” daylight is gray. There is a tiny whisper of
sound in the repeated slight “s” sounds of coppice, spectre, dregs, and desolate. “Frost” and “Winter”
have capital letters as if their presence is the most important.
The “strings of broken lyres” is a classic image of disharmony, and perhaps points to a lack of joy in the
poet’s vision of life. Even the people who have gone home to the warmth of their fires seem to have
assumed a ghostly quality, “all mankind that haunted nigh.”
Stanza Two
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
The second stanza continues the model of the former if anything in even stronger terms. The whole past
century is a “corpse,” the cloudy sky its tomb, and the winter wind like the century’s death song. The
personification of the century intensifies one’s feeling that it is a real presence.
The imagery in this stanza continues and enlarges on the motif of death contained in the first. Despite
the personal, subjective start of the poem, by the end of the second stanza, Hardy has made his mood
an emblem for all life upon earth, and he even suggests that the very life force is “shrunken hard and
dry,” that life itself is near to exhaustion and death. This is achieved in an undramatic, almost quiet,
manner with a slow build-up to a terrifying vision of death, driven largely by natural images.
The alliteration in this stanza intensifies the atmosphere of gloom and death. Repeated “c” links
“century’s corpse,” “crypt,” and “cloudy canopy.” The rhymes of “birth” and “earth” are negated by
“dry” and “I.” Everything is seen in terms of death: “sharp features” (of a dead body), “century’s
corpse,” “crypt,” “death-lament,” “shrunken hard and dry,” “fervourless.” It seems that it is not just the
death of the old century that Hardy is describing, but the death of the pulse of life that vitalizes and
energizes him and other people, the death of hope.
Stanza Three
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
In the third stanza, at the nadir of ‘The Darkling Thrush,’ the sudden hurling out of its song by a thrush
might be seen as the injection of a rather fatuous optimism into the poem. The “full-hearted evensong /
Of joy illimited” is certainly a cause for hope.
The choice of bird here is what makes Hardy one of the finest poets: He chooses an old, frail, thin,
scruffy-looking thrush, not the nightingale of Miltonic and Romantic tradition. It is an ordinary
indigenous song-thrush, but one that is ‘blast-beruffled’: it has survived the strong winter winds, that
the poet had hitherto painted as brutal and uncooperative. The “aged” and “frail” thrush is, perhaps
facing its own imminent end, and yet it flings its soul ecstatically upon the darkening evening. The
resultant picture of an ordinary, weather-beaten, thrush rising from the depths of the winter winds with
their “death lament” singing a beautiful song, is one of hope.
Three run-on lines take us at full tilt to its message: “joy illimited.”. The very words with which Hardy
introduces the song are lyrical, rhythmic, and repetitive, like the thrush’s song: “At once a voice arose
among / The bleak twigs overhead.” In perfect iambics, each prefaced by the vowel “a,” Hardy echoes
the sound of the thrush’s song: “At once a voice arose among…”
Stanza Four
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
In the final stanza, the idea of religious faith is conveyed through the thrush’s “carolings,” reminiscent of
Christmas carols, and the “blessed Hope” — hope to be one of the three great Christian virtues, faith,
hope, and charity (love).
Hardy is careful not to be sentimental about the thrush. Hardy can see no cause for joy, but he can
hope, that the thrush can see something he himself cannot perceive. ‘The Darkling Thrush’ is thus finely
balanced. It suggests there may be hope, and the very sound of the thrush and its defiance of the
prevailing moods shows at the very least the existence of a tragic hope; life may be threatened, its
physical existence at risk, but its spirit is indomitable and cannot be crushed.
PREPARED BY : HUMAKHURSHEED