Theme

Love and Relationships

The Poem

The wind blew all my wedding-day,

And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;

And a stable door was banging, again and again,

That he must go and shut it, leaving me

Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain,

Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick,

Yet seeing nothing. When he came back

He said the horses were restless, and I was sad

That any man or beast that night should lack

The happiness that I had.

Now in the day

All’s ravelled under the sun by the wind’s blowing.

He has gone to look at the floods, and I

Carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run,

Set it down, and stare. All is the wind

Hunting through clouds and forests, thrashing

Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind

Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread

Carrying beads? Shall I be let to sleep

Now this perpetual morning shares my bed?

Can even death dry up

These new delighted lakes, conclude

Our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters?

Analysis

The wind blew all my wedding day

• Wind suggests destruction or change. It could imply renewal and a new start.

• The use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ is strange as weddings are a shared event. It feels as if she is forced into it, perhaps by society.

And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind,

• The use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ is strange as weddings are a shared event. It feels as if she is forced into it, perhaps by society.

• ‘high wind’ is pathetic fallacy. It suggests that the wedding is going to be destructive.

And a stable door was banging, again and again,

• Use of repetition, ‘again and again’.

That he must go and shut it, leaving me

Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain

• The adjective ‘stupid’ suggests that the narrator feels foolish for blindly entering into a marriage.

• The pathetic fallacy of ‘rain’ has negative connotations and can often suggests a sense of mourning - she may be mourning her past identity and the life that she once had.

Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick

• Adjective - suggests deformity and alteration.

Yet seeing nothing. When he came back

• Suggests that she has lost her identity.

He said the horses were restless, and I was sad

• Use of simple language - slightly sarcastic and defeated.

• Past tense.

That any man or beast that night should lack

The happiness I had.

• use of enjambment

• use of end-stop line - reinforces that she won ‘t get it back.

• Use of past tense - suggests that she no longer has that happiness and it was not permanent.

Now in the day

• A change in time

All’s ravelled under the sun by the wind’s blowing

• The verb ‘ravelled’ suggests that change has occurred.

• Use of pathetic fallacy - there is a suggestion that the wind has calmed (the change has calmed).

He has gone to look at the floods, and I

Carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run,

Set it down, and stare. All is the wind

• Use of pathetic fallacy. The wind could represent destruction and change, and the narrator feels as if it is still ‘hunting’ her even though she is now a married woman.

Hunting through clouds and forests, thrashing

My apron and the hanging cloths on the line.

• Personification of the wind.

• Violent verbs.

Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind

Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread

Carrying beads^^?^^ Shall I be let to sleep

• Simile - suggests fragility. Suggests that the marriage requires more support.

• Use of rhetorical question questions the strength of the marriage.

• ‘Sleep’ is a metaphor for death. It links to the traditional Christian wedding vows - ‘until death do us part’.

Now this perpetual morning shares my bed^^?^^

• ‘perpetual morning’ is a metaphor for the narrators husband

• Rhetorical question.

Can even death dry up

These new delighted lakes, conclude

Our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters^^?^^

• Rhetorical question

Context

• Phillip Larkin never married.

• His parents had a destructive marriage, in which his father had a dominating personality and his mother was subservient and passive.