Wind by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

• Published in 1957 in The Hawk in the Rain, Hughes’ first volume.
• We can see here the influence of Robert Graves’ The White Goddess, 1946.
• Many critics acknowledge this as the biggest literary influence on Hughes’ life and work.

Question 2

Form and Structure

Answer 2

Form

• Narrative poem in the dramatic monologue form.
• Speaker of the poem is both inspired and humbled by the force of nature.
• Speaker is both controlling and controlled by the elements.

Structure
-Hughes in his first volume rejected the Latinate iambic metres and rhythms of many of his poetic predecessors in favour of trochees and spondees,
“This house has been far out to sea all night.”
-Spondaic metre is almost brutal compared to the gentler iamb.
-Add to this a strong alliterative flavour to the work and onomatopoeia.
-Also frequent use of hyperbole:
“the roots of the house move…”

Question 3

Language Techniques

Answer 3

• Extended metaphor/symbol of the storm captures the idea that destructive forces in life-whatever they may be-cold war politics/ nuclear meltdown/ or the destructive forces at play in the individual human mind- have to be confronted.
• Even if by confronting them we are humbled and made smaller as is the case in the poem.
• Hughes often writes of culture’s attempts to protect itself from the elemental forces of the emotional life, nature and animals.