Wind

“Wind” is a free verse poem comprised of six quatrains: four-lined stanzas. While it is very close to blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—the meter and syllable count does not strictly follow this form. The poem’s structure does so closely enough, however, that some consider the poem to be blank verse.

The speaker is unnamed and one of two human characters present in the poem; the second, the speaker’s partner, does not appear until the penultimate stanza. The poem begins with a metaphor of the speaker’s house “far out at sea” (Line 1) during the night, in a storm so violent even the woods were “crashing” (Line 2) and the hills were “booming” (Line 2). The fields were “floundering” (Line 4) under the “stampeding” wind (Line 3). The “blinding” rain (Line 4) obscured the landscape. The mood is full of dread. Each image suggests a struggle—particularly in Hughes's choice of warlike diction. The storm continues all night “Till day rose” (Line 5), and in the second stanza, the mood begins to shift to a more hopeful one, with the “orange sky” (Line 5) of dawn.