"Wind," published in Ted Hughes' first collection The Hawk and The Rain (1957), operates on two levels of poetic meaning. On the surface, the poem narrates a destructive storm. However, the poem's final stanzas suggest that Hughes uses the storm's catastrophic forces to describe the turmoil of a couple or family who feel powerless to fight the impending collapse of their relationship.
Like many of Hughes' poems, "Wind" uses elements of the natural world to describe or explain human phenomena. The wind is a destructive force that wreaks catastrophic damage upon the landscape, even if the wind itself can't be seen with the naked eye. These qualities render the wind an excellent symbol for the unspoken interpersonal conflict suggested in the poem's final stanzas. Like the storm raging outside, the emotions the speaker and his companion experience tear apart their relationship through rapidly escalating blows.
Additionally, Hughes' powerful, active language heightens the poem's dramatic, emotional resonance. Although some of the poem's embedded metaphors may be difficult to imagine, words like "stampeding," "flexing," and "drummed" help us develop a clear picture of the tempestuous forces raging both outside and within the speaker's home. Hughes' success in rendering concrete the abstract qualities of one of nature's most devastating forces alongside emotional conflict makes "Wind" one of Hughes' most vivid and deeply affecting early poems.
