Wind

The world of a Hughes poem is one in which nature and humanity are in constant conflict and one in which humanity is always the weaker party. Nature simply does what it does and any struggle against the natural order, no matter the cost, is fruitless.

In “Wind,” Hughes describes the awesome violence and power of a storm. There is nowhere to hide and nothing is safe: not the trees nor the land—not the sheltering house, and certainly not the inhabitants. Here, the wind’s force is simultaneously powerful and threatening to everything in its path. The landscape and the living creatures are subject to the wind’s wrath. It blows where it wants, from every direction, and belies all sense of stability or safety.

Indeed, the shelter provided by the house is no match for the wind. Like a wave-tossed boat, it begins “far out at sea all night” (Line 1) and ends with even the foundation pulled at the “roots” (Line 24). The house functions as an extended metaphor for the human couple, so readers understand the pair is entirely vulnerable to the wind's power. This struggle is clearly evidenced when the speaker’s physical body is directly assailed by the wind which “dented the balls of [their] eyes” (Line 11).