The poem begins with the speaker describing a raging storm outside, which is kept at bay by only a few landmarks—a hill and a place called Gregory's Wood. Inside, with the wind howling, the speaker's mind is full of dread. He watches his young daughter sleep and prays for her future, pacing and praying for an hour. As he listens to the wind arcing along buildings, bridges, and trees, he imagines the future emerging to the sound of drumbeats from an innocent but dangerous sea.
The speaker hopes that his daughter will grow up beautiful, but not so beautiful that she causes distress to others—nor so beautiful that she herself forgets about the importance of other characteristics, since very beautiful people sometimes think that they can survive off of beauty alone. This causes them to be less kind and to have less of a capacity for intimacy, which means they cannot form meaningful relationships.
Helen of Troy, who was chosen by others because of her beauty, felt that life was boring. Moreover, she suffered because a foolish man (Paris, in the story of the Trojan war) was attached to her. Similarly, Aphrodite herself was born from the ocean. She had no father, and therefore had unusual liberty to love whomever she chose, but ended up choosing the bowlegged Hephaestus. Some women indulge in bizarre behavior, which destroys the abundance and happiness available to them. The speaker hopes that his daughter comes to understand that love is earned rather than given, at least for those who are not extraordinarily beautiful. Many people who have acted like fools in the face of beauty have then acted wisely when confronted with charm. Men who rove around, giving and receiving love, are drawn to women's kindness. He hopes that his daughter will grow to be like a silent tree, and that her thoughts are like the linnet (a type of small bird), which offers its song up generously and does not begin a chase or a conflict unless in the spirit of merriment and friendliness. He prays that she is like a laurel tree, healthy and rooted in place.
Because of the people he has loved and the beauty he has admired, the speaker's mind is not functioning at its best. Still, he knows that hatred is the worst thing for a person's mind. If a mind is free of hatred, even the strongest wind cannot separate the linnet from the leaves it sits among. Intellectually-rooted hatred is particularly destructive, and the speaker hopes that his daughter comes to distrust the judgment of opinion. Many opinionated, beautiful women with lives of plenty before them trade all the blessings of their existence to be with an angry and obnoxious man. When the soul rids itself of hate it attains a radical innocence and self-sufficiency, and it becomes clear that its desires match the desires of heaven itself. If his daughter can reach this place, then she will remain happy no matter how unhappy or frightening her surroundings are.
He hopes that her husband will take her to a home where tradition, custom, and routine reign. Out in the streets, arrogance and hatred are sold—but custom and tradition give way to beauty and innocence. Ceremony is synonymous with abundance, while custom is synonymous with the grand laurel tree.
