Destruction isn't just scary, it's also pretty awesome and impressive. In "Wind," the wind is beating birds out of the sky and denting eyeballs, but it's also causing a mysterious transformation to unfold. It's not purely destructive. It's also creative, since breaking things makes way for building new ones. For instance, it rearranges the hills (metaphorically) and makes "the stones cry out under the horizons." This last example might seem sort of weird, since the wind is evidently torturing these stones and making them scream. (The wind is the Scott Farkus of natural forces). But it's also making inanimate things come alive—a miraculous and awe-inspiring feat.
Questions About Awe and Amazement
- Is the speaker always in awe of Nature, or is he at times afraid of it? How can you tell?
- How does your experience of Nature compare with the speaker's experience of the wind? Was the awe you felt similar?
- Does this poem point us toward any message hidden in the awesomeness of the wind and of Nature? Is it supposed to tell us something, to warn us or instruct us?
Chew on This
The awe that the speaker feels for Nature shows him that there are powers far greater than him.
We find awe in Nature only in proportion to our capacity to feel awe within ourselves. So seeing awe in Nature is proof to our speaker that he's pretty amazing as well.