Wind

In "Wind," the wind and the house are the most prominent metaphors; both are examples that function as both literal and figurative entities. Hughes makes considerable use of metaphor and simile to describe the way violent wind feels and sounds, which personifies its power. Against nature, the wind “crashes” the woods (Line 2), “booms” (Line 2) and “drums (Line 12) the hills, “stampedes” (Line 3) and “quivers” (Line 13) the fields, and makes the “stones cry out” (Line 24). It “flings” one bird (Line 15) away and buckles another “like an iron bar” (Line 16), and it “dents” (Line 11) the speaker’s eyeballs.

Similarly, the house serves as a metaphor for the human couple in the poem. It is shaken to its foundation after having been “far out at sea all night” (Line 1) which is a metaphor. The wind threatens to “shatter” (Line 18) the house like a “fine green goblet” (Line 17), and causes its very “roots” to “move” (Line 22), likening the house to one of the trees. While the poem ends with the couple inside the house and safe from the prevailing winds outside, neither storm is abating.