The poem inspires readers to face challenges with courage and determination. It uses the metaphor of wind as a symbol of life's problems and obstacles. In the poem, the wind initially scatters papers and throws books down, representing difficulties weakening people. However, the poet says we should build strength through practices like firming the body and steadying the heart. If we become strong internally and externally, even challenges ("wind") can become friends rather than threats. The overall message is that strength and perseverance allow one to overcome hardships.

1. By- Subramania Bharati
[Translated from Tamil by A.K. Ramanujan]

2. ABOUT THE POET
Subramania Bharati
Subramania Bharati (1882–1921) is a great
Tamil poet, famous for his patriotism in the
pre-Independence era. He was pioneer of
modern Tamil poetry and literary figure of all
time.
A.K. Ramanujan
A.K. Ramanujan is a Kannada and English
poet, well known for his translation of
classical and modern poetry.

3. CENTRAL IDEA OF THE POEM
The poem inspires us to face the challenges and
hardships with courage, grit and firm
determination. Wind is a symbol of problems
and obstacles which are to be dealt without
fear. We must be friends with the wind
obstacles to cope with hard situations.

4. NOW LET’S READ THE POEM
Wind, come softly.
Don’t break the shutters of
the windows.
Don’t scatter the papers.
Don’t throw down the books
on the shelf.
There, look what you did —
you threw them all down.
You tore the pages of the
books.
You brought rain again.
You’re very clever at poking
fun at weaklings.

5. Frail crumbling houses,
crumbling doors, crumbling
rafters,
crumbling wood, crumbling
bodies, crumbling lives,
crumbling hearts —
the wind god winnows and
crushes them all.
He won’t do what you tell
him.
So, come, let’s build strong
homes,

6. Let’s joint the doors firmly.
Practise to firm the body.
Make the heart steadfast.
Do this, and the wind will
be friends with us.
The wind blows out weak
fires.
He makes strong fires roar
and flourish.
His friendship is good.
We praise him every day.

7. EXPLANATION OF THE SEGMENTS
Wind, come softly.
Don’t break the shutters of the windows.
Don’t scatter the papers.
Don’t throw down the books on the shelf.
There, look what you did — you threw them all down.
You tore the pages of the books.
You brought rain again.
You’re very clever at poking fun at weaklings.
The first part of the poem describes the action of the wind. The
poet asks the wind to come softly and requests the wind not to
break the shutters of the windows, not to scatter the papers
and throw down the book from the shelf. But the wind throws
the books and tears the pages. The poet says that the wind
makes the mockery of weaklings.
WORD MEANING
Poking fun – making fun of something
Weaklings – a person who is weak

8. SEGMENT - II
Frail crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters,
crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives, crumbling hearts —
the wind god winnows and crushes them all.
He won’t do what you tell him.
So, come, let’s build strong homes,
Here the word ‘Crumbling’ is repeated so many times to lays stress that everything
crushes in the face of a strong wind. Houses which are weak, fall, doors which are
weak fall, the beams on which the roof of the building are supported, they also fall, all
the wooden structures fall, all bodies of people fall, animals, lives, hearts. So the poet
is saying that whenever a weak person faces any adversity or challenge in life he
breaks down and fall. The poet is addressing to wind as ‘Wind God’ and he is saying
that the powerful god of wind winnows, that means he sifts all the people and those
the people who are weak fall down and get crushed. Just like we winnow the wheat to
separate the grain from chaff, the wind got separates the strong people from the
weak people. The poet wants us to makes friends with the wind i.e. the adversities in
our lives. The problems will come so we should be prepared to build strong homes
and closed the doors of a house firmly so that the wind cannot get into.
WORD MEANING
Crumbling – falling or to cause something to break
rafter – sloping beam with support the roof of the building
Winnows – separate grain from husk by blowing on it

9. SEGMENT - III
Let’s joint the doors firmly.
Practise to firm the body.
Make the heart steadfast.
Do this, and the wind will be friends with us.
The wind blows out weak fires.
He makes strong fires roar and flourish.
His friendship is good.
We praise him every day.
He says that we should also make our bodies strong and hearts firm to
face these challenges. And then once we are strong enough all the
challenges will be like friends. We will not feel they are troublesome. The
poet has kept wind on a pedestal. He adds that everything that is weak
gets finished off in the face of the strong wind. And all the things that are
strong, flourish and grow to become stronger. We should be physically and
mentally strong so as to overcome all the challenges. And once we are
strong enough, we will become friends with them and will lead a happy life.
WORD MEANING
Steadfast – firm
flourish– grow

10. LITERARY DEVICES
1). Rhyme Scheme- The entire poem is
written in the free verse. There is no
rhyming scheme in the poem.
2). Anaphora- When a word is repeated at
the start of two or more consecutive
lines. Lines 2,3,4 begin with ‘don’t’.
Lines 6,7,8 begin with ‘you’.
3). Personification- Wind has been
personified.
4). Repetition- ‘crumbling’ is repeated.
5). Alliteration- ‘wind winnows’, ‘won’t want’.

11. MESSAGE
The message conveyed through the poem
Wind is that we should never give up when there
are obstacles and hardships in life. We should
face those obstacles with strong will power like
poet befriends the wind so that it could not harm
the poet in any way. The strong message
conveyed by the poet is that we should look
towards the brighter side of the life and we
should change our problems into weapons.