Poetry: Nature

Question 1

Plath:
Wuthering heights summary

Answer 1

In the poem, a solitary speaker sets out for a walk in the highlands and feels overwhelmed by nature’s terrifying beauty. As is typical of Plath’s nature poetry, the landscape is used to symbolize its speaker’s inner tumult.

Question 2

Plath:
Wuthering heights context

Answer 2

Although the poem is based on actual walks taken by Plath in the Yorkshire moors, the emotions of alienation and ambiguity the poem describes are universal. Plath uses the imagery of horizons, grass, sheep, and wind to describe the solitary self at war with personal and institutional forces.

Question 3

Hughes:
Wind Summary

Answer 3

a poem about the sheer force of nature. As a storm wreaks havoc on the countryside, the speaker observes the wind’s indifferent brutality toward both the natural and human worlds.

Question 4

Hughes:
Wind Context

Answer 4

Wind is related to nature and particularly nature as it appeared in his childhood setting of West Yorkshire. His parents lived in a house high on a ridge which was exposed to gales. The poem explores the effect of a strong, incessant wind on the narrator as he shelters indoors.