To The Roaring Wind - Analysis

Introduction

This brief poem addresses a mysterious presence called Vocalissimus and asks what syllable it seeks in the landscape of sleep. The tone is intimate and slightly incantatory, combining curiosity with command in the single imperative, "Speak it." Though only three lines long, the poem shifts from distant questioning to an urgent demand, compressing wonder and insistence.

Context and authorial background

Wallace Stevens was an American modernist poet whose work often explores imagination, the mind, and language itself. This short poem fits Stevens's interest in how names and sounds shape perception; calling the addressee Vocalissimus echoes his tendency to invent or adapt words that foreground voice and consciousness.

Theme: The power of language

The poem centers on language as creative and revelatory. The question about a "syllable" suggests that a single sound can unlock meaning or transformation. The use of a Latinate superlative, Vocalissimus, elevates voice into a quasi-divine force, implying that utterance has the authority to shape the "distances of sleep."

Theme: The boundary between waking and dreaming

"Distances of sleep" frames sleep as a spatial or metaphoric realm separated from waking life. Addressing whatever inhabits that realm implies a desire to bridge inner and outer realities. The imperative "Speak it" functions as an attempt to summon or translate dream-material into conscious language.

Imagery, symbols, and ambiguity

The poem's central image is the sought syllable, a compact symbol of revelation, identity, or creative origin. Vocalissimus itself is symbolic: it personifies voice and suggests the ultimate speaker. The ambiguity—whether the speaker calls to a muse, a dream-figure, or a voice within—invites multiple readings and raises the question: what would change if that syllable were spoken?

Conclusion

In its concentrated form, the poem stages a dialogue between voice and sleep, asserting the potency of a single utterance to pierce distance and awaken meaning. Its significance lies in that tension: language asked to act as bridge, command, and revelation within the private geography of dreaming.