Wedding Wind
By Philip Larkin
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 farmer’s 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.
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.
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.
Points of interest
• The poem begins with the ‘my’. The
speaker’s husband is referred to as ‘he’
but never by name.
• In the closing the poem has moved from
the ‘I’ and ‘he’ to ‘our’.
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
Images
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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
Themes – things to think about
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Marriage – the joy of marriage?
Joy and happiness
The frailty of joyful moments
A story of an event or moment
Tone…Mood
• 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 it’s 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
Style
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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
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.