Night Wind - A Poem Analysis

Night Wind is a poem that demonstrate to the reader a scene of the influence that the wind has on speaker on during a particular breezy night. The authors major focus is the strength of the wind which tends to overpower and absorb the speaker. There are various efficient literary devices throughout the poem which fails to perforate a superficial level.

Beginning from the first stanza, the author illustrates how vast and strong the wind is, portraying the wind as an overpowering force that has taken control of him. The author explores the growth and movement of the wind in every stanza, establishing the relationship with it. Tonight the wind blows through all the worlds I have known and all the lives I have led (1).

In this stanza, the author has used personification through depicting the wind as a force which is strong enough to cross the entire world and lives, the author further describes the wind as an empire in exodus which shows how strong the wind is. The poet further stresses this through the use of alliteration which makes the phrase empire in exodus(13) to dominate the entire poem. Also, in the first stanza, the author uses phrases such as the dark shape of the tree but not the trees. (14). This shows the full strength of the wind on how it has changed the tree to a dark shadow after being blown off by the moving wind. Lastly, in the same stanza, the speaker portrays the wind in terms of spirituality. The poet shows the manner in which the wind is important in his spiritual world, tonight the wind blows through all the lives I have led (4).

In the second stanza, the wind continues to become stronger as it has already grown. In this stanza, the poet uses repetition of The night wind to position the poet feelings towards the wind. The speaker admits how the wind has taken control over him and he ends up using a metaphor to show how strong the wind is The night wing is an empire in exodus (3).To further show how strength and movement of the wind is, the speaker uses personification in the phrase, Oaks that wrestle the dusty twilight. Through personification of an oak tree, the author stresses the battle between the oak tree and the wind. The author tries to show that even a strong oak, one of the strongest tree cannot withstand the strength and the movement of the wind. In this stanza, the poet shows the freedom and power of the wind.

In the third stanza, the poet further shows how stronger the wind continues to become by claiming that the wind takes him and gathers him. The poet uses the third stanza to give the wind authority and power by showing the wind a darker hasher side. In this stanza, the author uses words such as mysterious while describing the wind. The mysterious and the dark nature of the wind shows how authoritative and strong the wind is. The poet further expresses a desire to be united with the wind in the third stanza physically. The moment the poet interacts with the wind, he is seduced, and gets lost in the imaginary world. The speaker is now part of the wind which takes the poet up high above the ordinary planet in the fourth stanza. The poet uses imaginary to explain the strength of the wind; I am the bloodrun of the atmosphere(30). With this statement, the speaker temporarily becomes part of the wind.

The poet continues to develop the wind in the fifth stanza explaining on how the wind has traveled through forests, highways, oceans and rivers.(35) This portrays the capability of the wind to influence the physical world. The poet has further used enjambment in this stanza whereby lines tend to run to one another. This has helps in adding speed and pace to the poem that reflects the strength of the wind. However, the moment the speaker returns to the ordinary world after the experience in the fantasy world, there is a different change in tone as the speaker. It is as if the speaker had known that he was living in an imaginary world and hence decided to come back to the real world.

In this poem, Dewdney has shown the strength and movement of the wind and later realizes that regardless of the power it possesses, it lastly amounts to nothing. The authority of the wind openly illustrated in the last stanza confirm that the wind is unspoken imperative. Through the use of such phrase, the poet can show the power that wind have and thus provide the reader with a sense of significance in the poem.