Robert Frost's Wind and Window Term Paper

The remainder of the poem assumes a more regularly rhythmic form, although the meter is not strict. Some of the remaining lines and stanzas follow an iambic hexameter, such as stanza three. However, many of the lines are in anapestic hexameter, or contain combinations of various meters. The poet inserts dactylic and anapestic feet along with iambic and also trochaic ones for intensity and variation, much as one would read a bedside story to a child.

Throughout the poem/story the narrator uses active voice, encouraging the listener to become further absorbed in the tale. Moreover, the active voice dramatizes the personification of the wind and window flower, the male and female protagonists in the tale. For instance, "He marked her through the pane," (line 9). When the speaker addresses the audience he uses imperative verbs: "Lovers, forget your love," (line 1). Although the wind performs most of the action in the poem, the flower is more like the hero in her passive, peaceful form of victory: "But the flower leaned aside... / and morning found the breeze / a hundred miles away," (lines 25; 27-28). In the last two lines of the poem, moreover, the fierce winter wind becomes once again a mere "breeze," as he was at the onset of the poem. As a breeze, he seems harmless, even kind, a far cry from his being "Concerned with ice and snow, / Dead weeds and unmated birds, / and little of love could know," (lines 14-16).Because of its heroic themes and because the protagonists are personified elements of nature, "Wind and Window Flower" takes on a fairy-tale atmosphere. The sense of a fairy tale is further emphasized by the poem's irregular yet strongly rhythmic meter and its regular rhyme scheme. Each stanza is composed as an ABCB form. This form parallels the type of rhythm and meter the poet employs: both are semi-regular and both therefore add drama and suspense to the fairy-tale like poem. Also contributing to the compelling nature of the narrator's deft storytelling is the poet's frequent use of alliterations. The title of the poem is itself alliterative: "Wind Window Flower." The first two lines of the poem rely strongly on the "L" sound, with the words "lovers," "love," and "list" condensed into just two short lines. The "W" sound is similarly repeated in the first two lines of the second stanza: When the frosty window veil / Was melted down at noon," (lines 5-6). In line 18 the poet combines the "SH" sound but not in a true alliteration: "He gave the sash a shake." Here, the "SH" sound is at the end of the word "sash" but at the beginning of the word "shake." Therefore, just as the poet mixes up both rhythm and rhyme to create suspense and compelling drama, he also creates novel and interesting alliterations. Through such poetic devices, the poet depicts several natural conflicts: between….....