Waking in the night to a strong wind, the speaker thinks immediately of someone absent. The sound of the storm moving through the great trees is like a rushing sea, and the feeling is double-edged: glad and afraid at once. There is thrill in the wildness, but also unease in the dark. As the night shakes and the leaves thin out, one thought keeps circling: the person the speaker longs for has come to find them, and the wind is that person. The poem creates an intimate, slightly eerie mood. Weather and human presence blur, so the storm feels personal rather than random. The longing is strong, but so is a strange comfort—even a frightening wind can feel like being found. The repeated thought and short lines catch the insistent rhythm of a half-awake mind returning again and again to the same idea.
The Storm — Summary
I thought of you when I was wakened By a wind that made me glad and afraid Of the rushing, pouring sound of the sea That the great trees made.
One thought in my mind went over and over While the darkness shook and the leaves were thinned-- I thought it was you who had come to find me, You were the wind.