Who Has Seen the Wind? Analysis

Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay

Form and Meter

They're catchy, short, and nearly impossible to forget. A good nursery rhyme tends to follow us through childhood and even into adulthood, mainly because of its singsong sound and repetition of key...

Speaker

Our speaker of "Who Has Seen the Wind?" sounds like she's telling a nursery rhyme because, well, she is. Maybe she's a bit more eloquent than the speaker of Humpty Dumpty, but since Rossetti was kn...

Setting

We have eight lines in "Who Has Seen the Wind?" so our setting isn't all that elaborate. We also don't have to do any detective work to decode whether we're in a "real" place or a made-up figurativ...

Sound Check

You shouldn't be too shocked when we say "Who Has Seen the Wind?" sounds like a nursery rhyme. Just like the speaker of this super-short rhyme, the overall sound is a bit more refined and lyrical t...

What's Up With the Title?

Good ol' Victorian poetry is always reliable when it comes to following conventional rules and patterns. The title, "Who Has Seen the Wind?" which becomes the poem's refrain, isn't trying to pull t...

Calling Card

Yeah, yeah, we know it sounds funny but it's also right on point when it comes to Christina Rossetti's lyrical, Victorian, rock star ways. Let's make one thing clear though: our lady wasn't anythin...

Tough-o-Meter

Since "Who Has Seen the Wind?" is a nursery rhyme intended for kids, we can expect simplicity in the speaker's language and takeaway themes. No need to break out the modern poetry decoder this time.

Trivia

Folks wrote a lot of letters back in the Victorian era. Poets wrote even more, including our lady Rossetti, who tells all in this collection.Give me the lowest place? Yup, our lady was an optimist...

Steaminess Rating

How many nursery rhymes do you know to be sexy? "Who Has Seen the Wind?" falls in suit when it comes to being kid-friendly and nature-centric.