Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil
Was melted down at noon,
And the cagèd yellow bird
Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,
He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by,
To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,
Concerned with ice and snow,
Dead weeds and unmated birds,
And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,
He gave the sash a shake,
As witness all within
Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed
To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside
And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the breeze
A hundred miles away.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Robert Frost's poem Wind and Window Flower

24 Comments

  1. Vicky says:

    I think the poem is a bout a love that cannot be. The wind being from one world and the flower being from another. The wind is cold and desolate (the winter breeze) The flower is from a world in which she is trapped ( the caged yellow bird) The wind tries to get her attention by shaking the sash , everyone who witnessed it knew of the intent, accept the flower, but by the time she realizes she loves the wind, he is gone.

  2. raquel embang says:

    I think the poem talks about a man or a boy who was attracted to a very pretty woman ( when we say flower,, it means beauty ).. so the girl must really be beautiful. Problem was,, the girl must be some kind of heavily guarded and watched.. must be a daughter of a rich couple.. never allowed to talk to anyone not of her kind.. so the boy just watched her from afar.. and the girl also just watched the boy from through her window.. eventually,, they managed to talk to each other but they were caught by the guards.. thus the line,,and the breeze was found the next morning. a hundred miles away..THE boy must have been arrested and put in prison.. A SAD ENDING to a great love story..

  3. Annie says:

    I think this poem is about a murder. Birds symbolize the relationship between the heavens and the earth, and the wind (the boy) is cold like death. It also mentions witnesses (like of a crime). Flowers and cold do not go together. When the flower leaned aside, I think that is her death. Flowers die when the first frost comes (winter wind).

    • Liv says:

      Wow…. I really like this! Now that I reread “The Wind and Window Flower” I can see it how you see it. This is honestly really cool! I never saw it that way until now.

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