Literary Criticism |
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Formalistic Approach: In "Wind," Ted Hughes depicts a myriad of images associated with a storm. Hughes begins his poem by creating a tone of isolation as well as discomfort, casting a house which belongs on land into the sea. He then uses distinct imagery regarding the crashing woods, the "booming hills," and the stampeding winds to form a sinister setting and tone (2). Just as the reader begins to perceive the ominous mood of the poem, Hughes changes the tone from a menacing tone to a marginally hopeful tone in the first line of the second stanza. He accomplishes this tone shift through diction, punctuation, and color symbolism. Hughes impresses upon the reader that the first stanza represents night by describing the darkness, as well as beginning the second stanza with the words, "Till day rose" (5). A semicolon is used to distinguish the change from night to day, and Hughes further juxtaposes the day and night using color by describing the night as "floundering black" and the day as having an "orange sky" (4-5). Once day has broken in "Wind," Hughes describes how the storm affected the landscape surrounding the house. He writes that "the hills had new places" and the narrator could see "luminous black and emerald" (6-7). Hughes employs a simile to demonstrate how severely the wind causes the trees and other elements of the landscape to bend "like the lens of a mad eye" (8). In the third stanza, the narrator describes going outside at noon and observing the power of the storm and the damage done by it. Hughes' inclusion of the narrator going out at noon suggests that the narrator went outside at the brightest part of the day; however, despite the time, Hughes' following descriptions of what the narrator observes refute any hopes that the storm has abated. The force of the wind "dented the balls" of the narrator's eyes, and the sky resembled a scowl (11). The narrator includes descriptions of how the wind affected a magpie and a gull, each in different ways, thus symbolizing how storms affect different objects differently. Hughes uses the simile, "the house / Rang like some fine green goblet" to create sound imagery regarding the fragility of the house compared to the strength of the storm (15-6). Following this description, the setting then changes from outside to inside the house, when the narrator describes sitting before a roaring fire, helplessly listening to the raging storm. In fact, the storm is so loud that the occupants of the house cannot think, read, or even communicate with each other. A desperate tone emerges at the end of the poem with the realization that although this storm could destroy homes and lives, such a storm is inevitable.
Historical-Biographical Approach: Although Hughes only lived in West Yorkshire for seven years, his childhood experiences exploring the nature and the landscape there shaped his life and his writings. "Wind" is one of Hughes's poems which addresses natural occurrences at face value and was influenced by his time spent in West Yorkshire. The town in which he grew up is located in a valley; however, Hughes felt repressed by the valley and often explored the surrounding moors. It was this landscape which influenced his writing the most; the valley's surroundings were rugged, stark and harsh, and Hughes believed they seemed as if they were still "in mourning for the first world war" (Shaw). Conversely, Hughes also held that these moors were triumphant, despite the appearance of mourning. These conceptions and appreciation of nature and natural events are what shape "Wind"; Hughes incorporates this same combination of both harshness and triumph in this poem. However, the harsh descriptions outweigh the triumph displayed in "Wind"; this unbalance could be attributed to Hughes's relationship with his wife, Sylvia Plath, at the time that this poem was written. Plath had attempted suicide four years prior to the publication of "Wind," and she was experiencing a myriad of emotional struggles. Thus, it is possible that Hughes's attempts to contend with Plath's problems during this period of her life caused him to express the callous side of nature.
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