Imagery: Language that brings to mind sense-impressions.

• Hughes uses distinct imagery to convey the force of the wind:
• "The woods crashing through darkness" (2)
• "Winds stampeding the fields under the window / Floundering black astride and blinding wet" (3-4)
• "Blade-light, luminous black and emerald" (7)
• "Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes / The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope," (11-2)
• "At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;" (14)

Simile: The comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as.”

• "Flexing like the lens of a mad eye." (8)
• "A black- / Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly." (15-6)
• "The house / Rang like some fine green goblet" (16-7)

Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or “as.”

• "The skyline a grimace" (13)
• Hughes gives the storm metaphoric characteristics which enhance the reader’s understanding of the severity of the storm or conflict.

Diction: The word choice and phrasing in a literary work.

• “We grip / Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought, / Or each other.” (19-21)
• Hughes’s word choice of “grip” implies a panicked state; additionally, his isolation of the phrase “Or each other” emphasizes the seriousness of the storm.
• “Rang like some fine green goblet in the note” (17)
• Hughes’s choice of the word “goblet” gives the poem a slightly antique tone due to the connotations of the word.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words that sound like the thing to which they refer.

• "The booming hills" (2)
• “The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,” (12)
• "At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;" (14)

Tone shift: A change in the general atmosphere of a literary work.

• "Till day rose; then under an orange sky / The hills had new places" (5-6)
• Hughes uses a semicolon and the word “then” to accentuate the change in tone.

Syntax: The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

• Sentence length
• Hughes utilizes lengthy sentences throughout Wind to signify the longevity and continuity of the storm or conflict.
• "We grip / Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought, / Or each other."
• Hughes isolates the end of this sentence, “Or each other,” to accentuate the severity of the storm; if the victims of the storm or conflict are so enveloped in the situation that they cannot even communicate with each other, the storm must be severe.

Juxtaposition: The side-by-side placement of two distinctly different things in order to highlight their differences.

• "The wind flung a magpie away and a black- / Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly." (15-6)
• Hughes juxtaposes the flinging of a magpie and the slow bending of a gull to demonstrate how such a severe storm affects different beings in different ways.

 

Punctuation:

• “Till day rose; then under an orange sky” (5)
• A semicolon is used to signify a tone shift.
• “Once I looked up –“ (10)
• Hughes employs a dash to force the reader to pause, as well as to signify the action taken.

Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words.

• “Floundering black astride and blinding wet” (4)
• “The hills had new places, and wind wielded” (6)
• “Blade-light, luminous black and emerald” (7)
• “A black- / Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly.” (15-16)
• “Rang like some fine green goblet in the note” (17)
• “In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip” (19)

End-stop: Occurs when there is a break at the end of a line denoted by a comma, period, semicolon, or other punctuation mark.

• “This house has been far out at sea all night,” (1)
• “The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,” (2)
• “Blade-light, luminous black and emerald”, (7)
• “Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.” (8)
• “The coal-house door. Once I looked up –“ (10)
• “The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,” (12)
• “The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,” (13)
• “At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;” (14)
• “The wind flung a magpie away and a black-“ (15)
• “Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought,” (20)
• “Or each other. We watch the fire blazing,” (21)“And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on,” (22)
• “Seeing the window tremble to come in,” (23)
• “Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.” (24)

Enjambment: Occurs when a sentence or clause runs on to the next line without a break.

• “Floundering black astride and blinding wet” (4)
• “Till day rose; then under an orange sky” (5)
• “The hills had new places, and wind wielded” (6)
• “At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as” (9)
• “Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes” (11)
• “Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house” (16)
• “Rang like some fine green goblet in the note” (17)
• “That any second would shatter it. Now deep” (18)
• “In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip” (19)