The Wind

 

The Wind

By Subramania Bharati

Theme:

The poem "Wind" by Subramania Bharati is a symbolic portrayal of the wind as a powerful force of nature and a metaphor for the challenges and hardships of life. The poet presents the wind as a symbol of the difficulties and obstacles we face. Through this, he conveys that to overcome life’s challenges, we must become strong, firm, and resilient. We should not expect life to be smooth or easy just because we wish it to be so. Instead, we must be prepared and mentally strong to deal with hardships and adversities.

Moral / Message:

The poem imparts the message that life is full of struggles and difficulties, but we must not fear them. Instead, we should grow stronger and more determined to face them courageously. Adversity tests us—but it also strengthens those who refuse to give up.

Summary:

The first part of the poem describes the forceful actions of the wind. The poet initially appeals to the wind to come gently. He requests it not to break the window shutters, scatter the papers, or throw books off the shelf. However, the wind does exactly the opposite—it throws the books down and tears their pages.

The poet observes that the wind mocks and destroys what is weak. It brings down fragile houses, broken doors, weak rafters, and even feeble hearts. It crushes everything that lacks strength.

Through this, the poet gives us a powerful message: we must become strong—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Only then can we withstand the storms of life. The world, he says, respects the strong and disregards the weak.

Thus, the poem emphasizes that strength is essential to face adversity and succeed in life.

Literary devices

Rhyme scheme - The entire poem is written in free verse. There is no rhyme scheme in the poem.

Anaphora - When a word is repeated at the start of two or more consecutive lines, it is the device of Anaphora.

Lines 2, 3, 4 begin with ‘don’t’. Lines 6, 7, 8 begin with ‘you’.

Personification – wind has been personified. When the poet says ‘you are’, he is referring to wind as ‘you’ that means he is treating wind as a person.

Repetition - ‘crumbling’ is repeated many times to lay emphasis. The poet wants to say that the wind crushes everything that is weak. That is why he repeats the word crumbling.

Alliteration - the repetition of a consonant sound in close connection. ‘wind winnows’ , ‘won’t want’

Symbolism - Symbolism means that the thing refers to some other thing. Wind is a symbol for the challenges and adversities in life.

Additional Questions:

1. What is the poet pleading to the wind? Does the wind listen to it?

2. What does the poet mean by saying that wind is clever at poking fun at weaklings?

3. How does the wind react to weak fire and strong fire?

4. What do you mean by crumbing hearts?

      5. Find the poetic devices in the extract.

Extract Based Questions

5. Read the following extract and answer the question that follow:

So, come, let’s build strong homes,

Let’s joint the door firmly,

Practice to firm the body,

Make the heart steadfast

(a)  What does the poet appeal in the extract? Why?

(b)  What would be the result if we follow what the poet advises us?

(c)  Write the meaning of the following words in the extract:

         (i)   Firm         (ii) steadfast

Solved Questions

1. What are the things the wind does in the first stanza?

A. When the wind blows violently, it destroys everything. It breaks the shutters of windows, scatters the papers, throws the books down from the shelves, tears their pages and brings along a lot of rain.

2. What does the poet say the wind god winnows?

A. The wind God winnows means that nature sifts the weak things from the strong ones. Everything that is weak is tossed by the powerful wind and gets destroyed. Just like the winnower separates the grains of wheat from the chaff, similarly, the wind god separates the weak from the strong.

3. What should we do to make friends with the wind?

A. We must make ourselves strong to face the violent wind. When we will be strong, the wind will not harm us, instead it will become a friend and help us to grow and flourish.

4. What do the last four lines of the poem mean to you?

The last four lines of the poem carry an important message that the strong people emerge stronger and victorious in the face of adversities. We must make ourselves strong like a burning fire which grows and flourishes in the violent wind, we also prosper in the face of challenges.