“Wind” is a poem written by the celebrated Tamil poet Subramania Bharati and translated into English. It is included in the Class 9 English textbook Beehive (NCERT) prescribed by ASSEB (Assam State Board of Secondary Education) for the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) course. In this poem, the poet addresses the wind directly and uses it as a powerful symbol — the wind represents life’s hardships, obstacles, and challenges, while the speaker calls upon all human beings to be strong, firm, and courageous in the face of those difficulties.
The Poem — Wind
Wind, come softly.
Don’t break the shutters of the windows.
Don’t scatter the papers.
Don’t throw down the books on the shelf.
There, look what you did — you threw them all down.
You tore the pages of the books.
You brought rain again.
You’re very clever at poking fun at weaklings.
Frail crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters,
crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives,
crumbling hearts —
the wind god winnows and crushes them all.
He won’t do what you tell him.
So, come, let’s build strong homes,
Let’s joint the doors firmly.
Practise to firm the body.
Make the heart steadfast.
Do this, and the wind will be friends with us.
The wind blows out weak fires.
He makes strong fires roar and flourish.
His friendship is good.
We praise him every day.
Summary / Central Idea of the Poem “Wind”
The poem “Wind” by Subramania Bharati is an address to the wind. In the beginning, the poet requests the wind to come gently and not to cause any destruction — not to break windows, scatter papers, or throw down books. However, the wind does not listen and continues to wreak havoc: it tears book pages, brings rain, and destroys everything that is weak and frail.
The wind, in the third stanza, is described as a powerful force — a “wind god” — that crushes and destroys all things that are frail and crumbling: weak houses, weak doors, weak bodies, weak lives, and weak hearts. The wind does not spare anything that lacks strength.
In the fourth and fifth stanzas, the poet shifts his tone from complaint to advice. He urges people not to try to stop or beg the wind, but instead to make themselves strong. He asks people to build strong homes, fasten doors firmly, strengthen their bodies, and make their hearts steadfast and courageous. If people become strong, the wind will become their friend rather than their enemy.
The central idea of the poem is that hardships and difficulties in life (symbolised by the wind) cannot be avoided or stopped by pleading. The only way to overcome them is to build inner strength, courage, and resilience. The poem is essentially a motivational call to build mental and physical fortitude to face life’s challenges.
Stanza-wise Explanation
Stanza 1 — The Poet’s Request
Lines: “Wind, come softly. / Don’t break the shutters of the windows. / Don’t scatter the papers. / Don’t throw down the books on the shelf.”
Explanation: In the first stanza, the poet directly addresses the wind and makes a polite request. He asks the wind to come gently and softly, without causing any harm. He specifically asks the wind not to break the window shutters, not to scatter papers, and not to knock books off the shelf. The tone here is gentle and pleading. The poet is trying to reason with the wind, hoping it will listen to him.
Stanza 2 — The Wind’s Disobedience
Lines: “There, look what you did — you threw them all down. / You tore the pages of the books. / You brought rain again. / You’re very clever at poking fun at weaklings.”
Explanation: In the second stanza, the poet observes that despite his request, the wind did not listen. The wind has thrown down all the objects, torn the pages of books, and brought rain. The poet accuses the wind of being “very clever at poking fun at weaklings.” This line is significant — it suggests that the wind (like life’s difficulties) always targets and attacks those who are weak and unprepared. The wind shows no mercy to the frail and the helpless.
Stanza 3 — Destruction of the Weak
Lines: “Frail crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters, / crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives, / crumbling hearts — / the wind god winnows and crushes them all.”
Explanation: This stanza is the most powerful in the poem. The word “crumbling” is repeated many times — a literary device called anaphora — to emphasise the idea of weakness and decay. The poet lists everything that is frail: crumbling houses, doors, rafters, wood, bodies, lives, and hearts. All these are destroyed by the wind. The word “winnows” is used here — in farming, winnowing means separating grain from chaff by throwing them into the wind. Here, the wind god acts as a winnower, separating the weak from the strong and crushing the weak entirely. This stanza conveys that weakness in any form — physical, mental, or emotional — will be destroyed by the hardships of life.
Stanza 4 — The Solution: Become Strong
Lines: “He won’t do what you tell him. / So, come, let’s build strong homes, / Let’s joint the doors firmly. / Practise to firm the body. / Make the heart steadfast. / Do this, and the wind will be friends with us.”
Explanation: In the fourth stanza, the poet accepts that the wind cannot be controlled or commanded. Since the wind (hardship) will not stop at our request, the only solution is to make ourselves stronger. The poet gives practical advice: build strong homes (secure your physical surroundings), joint the doors firmly (fortify your defences), practise to firm the body (strengthen yourself physically), and make the heart steadfast (develop emotional and mental courage). If we become strong in all these ways, the wind will befriend us instead of harming us. This stanza is the turning point — from complaint to constructive action.
Stanza 5 — The Wind as a Friend of the Strong
Lines: “The wind blows out weak fires. / He makes strong fires roar and flourish. / His friendship is good. / We praise him every day.”
Explanation: The final stanza concludes the poem with an optimistic note. The wind blows out fires that are weak and small, but it makes strong fires burn even more brightly and powerfully. This is a metaphor for life — difficulties and challenges break down the weak, but they make the strong even stronger and more capable. The poet ends by saying that the wind’s friendship is good and worth praising every day. This means that if we face hardships with strength, those very hardships become our allies — they make us grow and flourish.
Thinking about the Poem — Textbook Questions and Answers
Q1. What are the things the wind does in the first stanza?
Answer: In the first stanza, the wind is requested not to do harmful things. However, the wind is described as potentially breaking the shutters of windows, scattering papers, and throwing down books from the shelf. In the second stanza, the poet observes that the wind has in fact done these very things — it threw down all the objects, tore the pages of books, and brought rain.
Q2. Have you seen anybody winnow grain at home or in a field? What is the word in your language for winnowing? What do people use for winnowing?
Answer: Yes, winnowing is a common agricultural activity in rural India. Winnowing is the process of separating grain from chaff (the dry, scaly protective casing of seeds) by throwing the mixture into the air so that the lighter chaff is blown away by the wind while the heavier grain falls back. In Assamese, the word for winnowing is khunda (ক্ষুণ্ড) or the process of cleaning grain. People traditionally use a flat basket called a kulo (কুলো) or a winnowing fan for this purpose. The activity is done in the open air so that the natural breeze or wind can carry the chaff away.
Q3. What does the poet say the wind god does to the weaklings? What is the central theme of the poem?
Answer: The poet says that the wind god “winnows and crushes” all the weaklings. Just as a farmer winnows grain to separate the strong from the weak, the wind god destroys everything that is frail and crumbling — weak houses, crumbling doors and rafters, crumbling wood, weak bodies, crumbling lives, and crumbling hearts. None of the weak things can survive the wind’s onslaught.
The central theme of the poem is that life’s hardships and difficulties (symbolised by the wind) always target and destroy the weak. The poem urges human beings to build physical strength, mental courage, and emotional resilience so that they can not only survive life’s challenges but also thrive because of them. Strength transforms the wind from an enemy into a friend.
Q4. What does the poet ask us to do to make friends with the wind?
Answer: The poet asks us to do the following things in order to make friends with the wind:
- Build strong homes that can withstand the wind’s force.
- Join (fasten) the doors of our homes firmly so they do not break.
- Practise to firm and strengthen our bodies through physical discipline.
- Make our hearts steadfast and courageous so that we are not broken by difficulties.
If we strengthen ourselves in all these ways — physically, mentally, and emotionally — the wind will become our friend. It will no longer harm us but will instead make us stronger, just as it makes strong fires roar and flourish.
Q5. How does the wind behave with weak fires and strong fires? What is the underlying message?
Answer: The wind blows out weak fires — it extinguishes them easily and completely. But when the wind encounters strong fires, it makes them roar and flourish — the strong fires burn even more intensely because of the wind. The underlying message is that life’s hardships and challenges (the wind) crush the weak but strengthen the strong. Difficulties, obstacles, and adversities are not something to run from; if we have inner strength, the very same hardships that destroy others will make us grow, succeed, and shine even more brightly.
Additional Questions and Answers
Short Answer Questions
Q1. Who is Subramania Bharati? What language did he originally write in?
Answer: Subramania Bharati (1882–1921) was a great Tamil poet, journalist, and freedom fighter from India. He is celebrated as one of the most prominent figures in modern Tamil literature. He wrote powerful patriotic, spiritual, and nature poetry in Tamil. The poem “Wind” is originally a Tamil poem that has been translated into English and included in the NCERT Class 9 Beehive textbook. His poems were revolutionary for their time, blending nationalist fervour with rich poetic imagery.
Q2. What literary device is used in the third stanza of the poem? Give examples from the stanza.
Answer: The main literary device used in the third stanza is anaphora — the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines. The word “crumbling” is repeated multiple times: “crumbling houses,” “crumbling doors,” “crumbling rafters,” “crumbling wood,” “crumbling bodies,” “crumbling lives,” and “crumbling hearts.” This repetition emphasises the idea of weakness and fragility. Another device present is personification — the wind is called a “wind god” with the power to winnow and crush. The stanza also uses a metaphor — the wind god as a winnower separating the strong from the weak.
Q3. Why does the poet call the wind “clever at poking fun at weaklings”?
Answer: The poet calls the wind “clever at poking fun at weaklings” because the wind consistently targets and destroys everything that is weak and fragile. Just as a bully or a clever trickster always picks on those who cannot defend themselves, the wind finds and destroys weak structures, weak bodies, and weak hearts. The wind does not attack or damage strong things — only the frail and crumbling are destroyed. This line also carries irony: the poet uses the word “clever” sarcastically to highlight how the wind takes advantage of weakness rather than meeting strength with strength.
Q4. What does “winnowing” mean in the context of this poem?
Answer: In farming, winnowing means using wind to separate grain from chaff. The heavier grain falls back down while the lighter, useless chaff is blown away. In the context of this poem, the “wind god” acts as a winnower of humanity. He separates the strong from the weak — the “strong grain” (strong people, strong structures, strong hearts) survives, while the “chaff” (the weak and frail) is crushed and scattered. The metaphor implies that hardships in life naturally test and separate the capable from the incapable. Only those who have cultivated inner strength will survive and thrive.
Q5. The poem “Wind” is written without rhyme. Does this affect its impact? Why or why not?
Answer: The poem “Wind” is written in free verse — it does not follow a fixed rhyme scheme or metre. This does not diminish its impact; in fact, the absence of a rigid rhyme scheme makes the poem feel more natural, direct, and conversational. The poet is directly addressing the wind and then speaking to the reader as if in an earnest, personal conversation. Free verse also mirrors the unpredictable, irregular nature of the wind itself — just as the wind does not follow any fixed pattern, neither does the poem. The rhythm is created instead through repetition (especially in the third stanza) and the natural cadence of the language.
Q6. What is the symbolic significance of “building strong homes” and “making the heart steadfast” in the poem?
Answer: “Building strong homes” symbolises the need to create a secure, firm foundation in our external life — to be well-prepared and organised so that adversity cannot easily destroy us. “Making the heart steadfast” symbolises the need for inner strength, courage, and emotional resilience — the ability to remain unshaken and determined even in the face of difficulties, failures, and suffering. Together, the two ideas represent a complete approach to facing life’s challenges: we must strengthen both our external circumstances (homes, physical health) and our internal character (willpower, courage, determination). A person who is strong both outwardly and inwardly has nothing to fear from the wind of hardship.
Q7. How does the poet’s tone change from the beginning to the end of the poem?
Answer: At the beginning of the poem, the poet’s tone is gentle and pleading — he requests the wind to come softly and not cause damage. In the second stanza, the tone shifts to frustration and reproach as the poet observes that the wind has done exactly what he asked it not to do. In the third stanza, the tone becomes serious and almost resigned as the poet describes the wind god’s ruthless destruction of all things weak. But from the fourth stanza onwards, the tone changes dramatically to one of determination, optimism, and empowerment. The poet stops pleading with the wind and instead advises people to make themselves strong. The final stanza ends on a celebratory note — praising the wind every day. The overall movement is from helplessness to strength.
Long Answer Questions
Q1. The wind in the poem is a symbol. What does it symbolise? How does the poem use this symbol to convey an important life lesson?
Answer: In the poem “Wind” by Subramania Bharati, the wind is a powerful symbol of the challenges, hardships, obstacles, and adversities that every human being faces in life. Just as the wind in nature can be a destructive force that breaks windows, tears pages, brings storms, and levels weak structures, life’s difficulties can break down people who are weak, unprepared, or fragile.
The poem uses this symbol to convey a vital life lesson: we cannot stop hardships from coming, just as we cannot stop the wind from blowing. When the poet asks the wind to come softly and the wind ignores him, it reflects the reality that difficulties in life do not listen to our pleading or complaints. They come regardless of our wishes.
The lesson, therefore, is not to try to avoid or stop life’s challenges, but to make ourselves strong enough to face them. The poet advises us to strengthen our bodies, our homes (circumstances), and most importantly, our hearts (inner courage and resilience). When we are strong, the same wind that destroys weak fires makes strong fires burn brighter. The wind (hardship) then becomes our friend — it tests us, refines us, and makes us grow.
The poem ultimately teaches that strength is the answer to adversity. People who cultivate resilience not only survive difficulties but actually become more powerful because of them. This is a timeless and universal message that applies to students, workers, leaders, and all human beings.
Q2. How does the poem “Wind” inspire us to face difficulties in life? What qualities does the poet encourage us to develop?
Answer: The poem “Wind” by Subramania Bharati is a deeply inspiring poem that encourages human beings to face life’s difficulties with courage and strength rather than despair and weakness.
The poem first establishes the reality of hardship: the wind (adversity) is powerful, relentless, and indifferent to our requests. It destroys everything that is weak — weak houses, weak bodies, weak hearts. There is no point in begging hardship to go away. This honest acknowledgement of difficulty is itself inspiring because it encourages us to be realistic and stop hoping that life will always be easy.
The poem then inspires us with practical and motivational advice. The qualities the poet encourages us to develop include:
- Physical strength: “Practise to firm the body” — we must keep our bodies healthy, strong, and capable of enduring hardship.
- Emotional resilience: “Make the heart steadfast” — we must develop inner courage, determination, and the ability to remain calm and firm under pressure.
- Preparedness: “Build strong homes” and “joint the doors firmly” — we must prepare our lives, relationships, and environments so that adversity finds us ready.
- Positive attitude: The poet ends by praising the wind every day — this reflects a mindset of gratitude and positivity, treating challenges as opportunities for growth.
The poem’s final image — the wind making strong fires roar and flourish — is perhaps the most inspiring of all. It tells us that the very difficulties that break the weak are the same forces that make the strong extraordinary. When we develop these qualities, we do not merely survive adversity — we thrive because of it.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)
Q1. Who is the poet of the poem “Wind” in Class 9 Beehive?
(a) Rabindranath Tagore (b) Subramania Bharati (c) Robert Frost (d) Walt Whitman
Answer: (b) Subramania Bharati
Q2. The poem “Wind” was originally written in which language?
(a) Hindi (b) Kannada (c) Tamil (d) Telugu
Answer: (c) Tamil
Q3. In the poem, the wind is described as being “clever at poking fun at” —
(a) children (b) weaklings (c) old people (d) strong people
Answer: (b) weaklings
Q4. What does the “wind god” do to frail and crumbling things in the poem?
(a) Protects them (b) Ignores them (c) Winnows and crushes them (d) Repairs them
Answer: (c) Winnows and crushes them
Q5. According to the poem, what does the wind do to strong fires?
(a) Puts them out (b) Makes them roar and flourish (c) Slows them down (d) Has no effect on them
Answer: (b) Makes them roar and flourish
Q6. What does the poet ask us to do to make friends with the wind?
(a) Pray to the wind god (b) Avoid going out in the wind (c) Build strong homes and make the heart steadfast (d) Plant more trees
Answer: (c) Build strong homes and make the heart steadfast
Q7. The word “winnows” in the poem refers to —
(a) building strong walls (b) separating the strong from the weak and crushing the weak (c) bringing rain (d) tearing book pages
Answer: (b) Separating the strong from the weak and crushing the weak
Q8. The poem “Wind” is written in —
(a) Sonnet form (b) Free verse (c) Ballad form (d) Rhyming couplets
Answer: (b) Free verse
Word Meanings / Glossary
| Word / Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Shutters | Wooden or metal covers for windows that can be opened or closed |
| Scatter | To throw around in different directions; to spread about untidily |
| Frail | Weak; not strong or sturdy |
| Crumbling | Breaking into small pieces; falling apart due to weakness |
| Rafters | Sloping beams that support the roof of a building |
| Winnows | Separates grain from chaff using wind; here, separates the strong from the weak |
| Steadfast | Firm, determined, and unwavering; not easily moved or shaken |
| Flourish | To grow vigorously; to thrive and develop strongly |
| Joint (verb) | To join firmly; to fasten together securely |
| Practise | To do something repeatedly in order to improve at it |