The poet uses words like ‘adown’, ‘rode’ which contain harsh consonants. Why do you think the poet has done this? (Stanza 8)

(Stanza 8) The poet uses words like ‘adown’, ‘rode’ which contain harsh consonants. Why do you think the poet has done this?

Do you think the words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ in the third stanza are spelt correctly? Why does the poet spell them like this?

Read the first and second stanzas of the poem again. Note the following phrases.

Corn growing, people working or dancing, wind sighing, rain falling, a singer chanting

These could be written as

Can you rewrite the other phrases like this? Why do you think the poet uses the shorter phrases?

In this poem the poet has personified the west wind. Who do you think he has personified the west wind as?

In line 4 the poet writes “She floats like a laugh” and in line 10, she writes, “She falls like a tear”. Do you think the poet has deliberately used the two contradictory feelings of “laughter” and “crying”? Give reasons for your answer.