Parent’s Guide: Wind Poems
The Wind
By Robert Louis Stevenson
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass—
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
A
A
B
B
C
C
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all—
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
D
D
E
E
C
C
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
F
F
G
G
C
C
Notes:
1. This poem has a very regular iambic tetrameter meter.
2. It is written in rhyming couplets.
3. Simile: “All around I heard you pass, like ladies’ skirts across the grass.”
©Brought to you by American Heritage Schools Year 2
Clouds
By Christina Rossetti
White sheep, white sheep, A
On a blue hill, B
When the wind stops C
You all stand still. B
When the wind blows D
You walk away slow. E
White sheep, white sheep, A
Where do you go? E
Who Has Seen the Wind?
By Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
A
B
A
B
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
A
C
D
C
Notes:
1. Both of these poems have an irregular meter.
2. They both have rhyme schemes of ABAB in each stanza. (But we use
different letters for each new rhyme.)
3. “Clouds” is a poem based on a metaphor. The clouds are compared to
sheep.
4. The repetition in “Who Has Seen the Wind?” provides a rhythm that the
actual meter does not.
©Brought to you by American Heritage Schools Literature 2-­‐25a / p 2 Brooms
By Dorothy Aldis
On stormy days
When the wind is high,
Tall trees are brooms
Sweeping the sky.
A
B
C
B
They swish their branches
In buckets of rain
And swash and sweep it
Blue again.
D
E
F
E
Notes:
1. This poem has an irregular rhythm.
2. The rhyme scheme is ABAB.
3. This poem is based on a metaphor. Trees are compared to brooms which
sweep the sky.
4. Find the alliteration in the poem. The alliteration adds to the beauty of the
poem. (When, wind; tall trees; sweeping, sky; branches, buckets; swash,
sweep.)
5. What words remind you of your five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste,
sound.
http://books.google.com/books?id=YPosxwjXjXEC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=%22brooms%22+dorothy+aldis&source=bl&ot
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©Brought to you by American Heritage Schools Literature 2-­‐25a / p 3