The Wind
Of all the sounds despatched abroad,There's not a charge to meLike that old measure in the boughs,That phraseless melody
The wind does, working like a handWhose fingers brush the sky,Then quiver down, with tufts of tunePermitted gods and me.
When winds go round and round in bands,And thrum upon the door,And birds take places overhead,To bear them orchestra,
I crave him grace, of summer boughs,If such an outcast be,He never heard that fleshless chantRise solemn in the tree,
As if some caravan of soundOn deserts, in the sky,Had broken rank,Then knit, and passedIn seamless company.
Words in this poem
- thrum n.
- One of the ends of weaver's threads; hence, any soft, short threads or tufts resembling these. [OE. thrum, throm; akin to OD. drom, D. dreum, G. trumm, lump, end, fragment, OHG. drum end, Icel. edge, brim, and L. terminus a limit, term. Cf. Term.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
- fleshless a.
- Destitute of flesh; lean. Carlyle.
- seamless a.
- Without a seam.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wind is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, The Wind, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-wind.html, id L03613.
Form and metre
The Wind is 21 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A hand · skyA · tune · meA
- 4 -A-A boughs · beA · chant · treeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Of all the sounds despatched abroad, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| There's not a charge to me | 6 | ······ |
| Like that old measure in the boughs, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That phraseless melody | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| The wind does, working like a hand | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whose fingers brush the sky, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Then quiver down, with tufts of tune | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Permitted gods and me. | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| When winds go round and round in bands, | 8 | ········ |
| And thrum upon the door, | 6 | ······ |
| And birds take places overhead, | 8 | ···/˘/˘/ |
| To bear them orchestra, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| I crave him grace, of summer boughs, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| If such an outcast be, | 6 | ···/·· |
| He never heard that fleshless chant | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Rise solemn in the tree, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As if some caravan of sound | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| On deserts, in the sky, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Had broken rank, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Then knit, and passed | 4 | ···· |
| In seamless company. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.