Wedding Wind

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Wedding Wind

• By Philip Larkin

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Summary

• This narrative poem tells us the story of a
  wedding day through the voice of the bride.
• The first stanza tells us about the wedding night
• The second stanza focuses on the first day of
  marriage after the wedding day
• The fictional speaker is a farmers wife and
  there is now honeymoon after the wedding.
• The husband is disturbed by the noise of a
  banging stable door and leaves her to shut it.
• She sees herself in a candlestick.
• She is sad that others are not as happy as she is
  now that she is married.

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Summary

• The next day brings the beginning of their new
  life together as man and wife.
• This moment is intensified by the wind.
• The woman is out working in the yard.
• The ordinary moment in life is practical and
  shabby (the chipped pail) yet she sees it as
  significant.
• She hangs some clothes on the line and the wind
  thrashes. We get a sense that the wind, like her
  marriage, changes things.
• The wind creates a great sense of excitement and
  she wonders if she can bear it the happiness,
  the exultation is almost too great to bear.

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Summary

• The speaker compares the joy to a thread
  carrying beads. (which may seek to remind us
  that these moments are short-lived)
• The poem ends with three questions.
• The first one asked if she could cope wi the
  happiness she has known at the start of the
  marriage.
• The second asks if she will be allowed to sleep
  now that she know such joy in her wedding bed.
• The third question asks if EVEN death can end
  this joyful new experience.

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Points of interest

• The poem begins with the my. The speakers
  husband is referred to as he but never by name.
• In the closing the poem has moved from the I
  and he to our.

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Images

• The poet uses images from the farm and the
  countryside to reflect the pleasures of marriage.
• The wind blowing
• The stable door banging
• The rain
• Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick

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Images

• The horses were restless
• The chipped pail
• Wind hunting through clouds and forests
• Thrashing my apron and the hanging cloths on the
  line.
• A thread carrying beads
• Kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters

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Themes things to think about

• Marriage the joy of marriage?
• Joy and happiness
• The frailty of joyful moments
• A story of an event or moment

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ToneMood

• Deep joy coloured by sadness as the speaker
  wishes everyone as happy as she is.
• A series of private, intimate thoughts
• Contentment with the world and its surroundings
• A sense of sacredness towards the end of the poem
  How?
• Sound and movement play an important part in this
  poem disucss in groups.
• Dramatic/intensity of feeling sometimes
  symbolised by the wind
• Excitement in anticipation
• FIND THESE IN THE POEM

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Style

• Converstional
• Narrative
• Free verse with some end-rhyme
• Line 1 iambic tetrameter
• This contrasts with the unusually long line 2
• Repetition of my, wind and wedding capture
  the main ideas in the poem the title
• Lines 8,10 rhyme 19/21 rhyme
• How many times is the word wind in the poem?
  5

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In Conclusion..

• In this poem the speaker uses images of the
  countryside and the farm to describe the
  pleasures of marriage.
• She appears to be trying to understand this
  wonderful new feeling she has
• There is a sense of mystery surrounding the bond
  of love between her and her new husband.
• We also get a sense that the physical
  relationship is a kind of new awakening
  transforming the way the speaker looks at herself
  and the world around her.

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