Wallace Stevens’s “The Wind Shifts” turns a change in the weather into a study of human moods. The wind is not just moving air; it moves the way an old person’s mind moves, still eager and despairing at once. Then it shifts like someone who has lost illusions but still feels irrational things stirring inside. Later it arrives with pride, then anger, and finally with a heavy indifference, as if it no longer cares. The repeated phrase “the wind shifts like this” gives the poem an almost chant-like rhythm, while the comparisons keep unsettling it. The speaker seems less interested in describing the wind than in catching how quickly inner states change—hope turning to despair, feeling turning to numbness. The mood is restless and somber, a quiet recognition that our emotions, like the wind, shift for reasons we cannot fully control.
The Wind Shifts — Summary
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.