Wallace Stevens

The Wind Shifts

The Wind Shifts - meaning Summary

Shifting Moods of Humanity

The poem likens the changing wind to human states of mind, mapping gusts onto emotions and attitudes: eager despair, disillusioned irrational feeling, proud or angry approach, and heavy indifference. By repeating "This is how the wind shifts," the speaker presents atmospheric change as an analogue for inner life, suggesting nature’s variability mirrors the unpredictable, often contradictory moods of people.

Read Complete Analyses

This is how the wind shifts: Like the thoughts of an old human, Who still thinks eagerly And despairingly. The wind shifts like this: Like a human without illusions, Who still feels irrational things within her. The wind shifts like this: Like humans approaching proudly, Like humans approaching angrily. This is how the wind shifts: Like a human, heavy and heavy, Who does not care.

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