Sunday, August 26, 2012

Wind and Window Flower


"Wind and Window Flower" was written and Published in 1913. It appeared in A Boy's Will; the collection attempts to show "the various stages of a young man's outlook on life" (page 129).  Although the critic believed that Frost wasn't very successful for the entire book, "Wind and Window Flower" seems to succeed at depicting one of the stages. Parini does not give specific background to this poem, rather he talks only about the entire collection, A Boy's Will. 


Wind and Window Flower
Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.


When the frosty window veil
Was melted down at noon,
And the caged yellow bird
Hung over her in tune,


He marked her through the pane,
He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by
To come again at dark.


He was a winter wind,
Concerned with ice and snow,
Dead weeds and unmated birds,
And little of love could know.


But he sighed upon the sill, 
He gave the sash a shake,
As witness all within
Who lay that night awake.


Perchance he half prevailed
To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
And warm stove-window light.


But the flower leaned aside
And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the breeze
A hundred miles away.

My Thoughts on the Poem:
"Wind and Window Flower" is a love poem about love that isn't realized, until it's too late, and thus can never be. The winter breeze is head over heels in love with the flower, but every time the tries to get the flower's attention she doesn't realize it. When the flower realizes that she loves the wind, he has already blown away from her, never to return. This poem is very human, rather than portraying two souls finding love that last's and is magical, it shows the much more common situation in which love doesn't work out. The Poem doesn't try to show that everything will be rainbows and gumdrops in the end, but rather that things may go wrong, and that things don't always work out.

-KEVIN M. HOOVER

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This was so helpful! Thank you! <3

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  3. Adding to previous comments, interpretation also alludes to an unfitting love "He was a winter wind Concerned with ice and snow because flowers don't maintain their blossoms in ice and snow and winter breeze knew "little of love". Further, there is an illusion of haste with reference to "win her for the flight from the firelit looking-glass" and presumably those within the dwelling who stayed awake guarding the flower.

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  4. What significance does the bird have?

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    1. I thought that the bird represented her freedom to love. The fact that it's caged makes me think that it represents how she's unavailable (possibly emotionally).

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