“The Wind Blew Words”
THE wind blew words along the skies,And these it blew to meThrough the wide dusk: “Lift up your eyes,Behold this troubled tree,Complaining as it sways and plies;It is a limb of thee.
“Yea, too, the creatures sheltering round—Dumb figures, wild and tame,Yea, too, thy fellows who abound—Either of speech the sameOr far and strange—black, dwarfed, and browned,They are stuff of thy own frame.”
I moved on in a surging aweOf inarticulatenessAt the pathetic Me I sawIn all his huge distress,Making self-slaughter of the lawTo kill, break, or suppress.
Words in this poem
- inarticulateness n.
- The state or quality of being inarticulate.
- pathetic a.
- Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [L. patheticus, Gr. pathétique. See Pathos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
“The Wind Blew Words” is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, “The Wind Blew Words”, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-wind-blew-words.html, id L24121.
Form and metre
“The Wind Blew Words” is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 1 ABABAB skiesA · meB · eyesA · treeB · pliesA · theeB
- 2 ABABAB roundA · tameB · aboundA · sameB · brownedA · frameB
- 3 ABABAB aweA · inarticulatenessB · sawA · distressB · lawA · suppressB
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE wind blew words along the skies, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And these it blew to me | 6 | ······ |
| Through the wide dusk: “Lift up your eyes, | 8 | ········ |
| Behold this troubled tree, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Complaining as it sways and plies; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| It is a limb of thee. | 6 | ······ |
| “Yea, too, the creatures sheltering round— | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Dumb figures, wild and tame, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Yea, too, thy fellows who abound— | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Either of speech the same | 6 | /˘···· |
| Or far and strange—black, dwarfed, and browned, | 8 | ········ |
| They are stuff of thy own frame.” | 7 | ······· |
| I moved on in a surging awe | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of inarticulateness | 8 | ········ |
| At the pathetic Me I saw | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| In all his huge distress, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Making self-slaughter of the law | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| To kill, break, or suppress. | 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.