A Critical Analysis of Wind By Ted Hughes

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A Critical Analysis of Wind By Ted Hughes

Hughes's opening line is sculpted in such a way that it gives the

reader an abundance of sensations. The poet achieves amazing

efficiency in the line "far out at sea all night" in that the reader

is exposed to distance, time and environment. The metaphor of the

house being "out at sea" projects the image of a boat "far out"

feeling totally isolated. The house faces wave upon wave of

inexhaustible pounding from the wind as a boat would from an enraged

sea. The time scale of "all night" could literally mean all night or

it may refer to the perception that the wind is so acutely intense

that it feels prolonged. The words "crashing", "booming" and

"stampeding elevate the wind to one of biblical proportions which

sounds like an orchestra thumping out a killer crescendo. The line

"stampeding the fields" accentuate the brutality of the wind attacking

the natural surroundings. In keeping with the oceanic metaphor the

house "floundering" evokes a sense futility. The alliteration in

"black" and "blinding" impose emphasis upon the words and a heightened

sense of awareness in the reader.

The second stanza is a witness to the winds legacy. The magnitude of

the winds power is illustrated with "the hills had new places". The

ultimate measure of the winds potency is that its changed the

environment which we would normally imagine reassuringly permanent.

The personification in the "wind wielded blade-light" makes the wind

dangerous and randomly spiteful. I think the " black and emerald,

flexing like the lens of a mad eye" refers back to the sea metaphor in

the first stanza. A stormy sky like a stormy ...

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last two lines of the poem Hughes writes the "window tremble to come

in" and "stones cry out". The personification in "tremble" and "cry"

show that even inanimate objects are displaying signs of fear and

distress.

The theme for the poem is ultimate respect for nature's weapons and

total humility for anything caught in the conflict. In some instances

respect turns to terror as if hiding from an omnipotent tyrant. The

structure of the poem is consistent throughout with six stanzas of

equal length. Hughes uses a lot of alliteration to break up the

reading fluency to reflect the choppy subject of the poem. Hughes's

use of metaphor skilfully illustrate the scale and nature of the wind

whilst drawing attention to the way the wind exploits the delicacy of

the surroundings we usually consider so dependably solid.

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