Emily Dickinson

The Duties of the Wind Are Few

The Duties of the Wind Are Few - meaning Summary

Wind's Restrained Freedoms

The poem personifies the Wind as a largely free, capacious force with a few functional duties—moving ships, marking seasonal change, escorting floods, and announcing liberty—yet expansive pleasures in roaming and observing. It links the Wind to landscapes, birds, and celestial bodies, suggesting kinship across scales. The speaker then admits uncertainty about the Wind’s limits or mortality, leaving its ultimate nature ambiguous and subject to speculation.

Read Complete Analyses

The duties of the Wind are few, To cast the ships, at Sea, Establish March, the Floods escort, And usher Liberty. The pleasures of the Wind are broad, To dwell Extent among, Remain, or wander, Speculate, or Forests entertain. The kinsmen of the Wind are Peaks Azof – the Equinox, Also with Bird and Asteroid A bowing intercourse. The limitations of the Wind Do he exist, or die, Too wise he seems for Wakelessness, However, know not i.

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