Number+436

436

The Wind — tapped like a tired Man — And like a Host — "Come in" I boldly answered — entered then My Residence within

A Rapid — footless Guest — To offer whom a Chair Were as impossible as hand A Sofa to the Air —

No Bone had He to bind Him — His Speech was like the Push Of numerous Humming Birds at once From a superior Bush —

His Countenance — a Billow — His Fingers, as He passed Let go a music — as of tunes Blown tremulous in Glass —

He visited — still flitting — Then like a timid Man Again, He tapped — 'twas flurriedly — And I became alone —

I didn't like this poem. Maybe it was because i am unsure if i know what the poem really means. I think that he is talking about wecoming a person into his life and he is very complicated to deal with. This person had no feet so was not able to sit down anywhere and was a body with no bones. The narrator talks about how he really likes his guest or that he respected him greatly. In the poem, he comparred a tired, footless man to the wind. The wind is invisible to us and that is what the footless man is like, he is uncontrolable about what he can and can not do and the speech that the man gives off is as strong as the wind pushing hard on an object. The tired man gave off music when he walked by, just like when a gush of wind comes by and you can hear it, just like a melody singing. I think that this comparison is very different from what i would compare a man too, but i probably would read another poem like this again. 1203550482ape2

I also didn't like this poem because the entire thing was about comparing one thing to another. The begining doesn't make sence because the wind is a powerful thing that can't get tired because it is not alive. Yet she compares that to a tired man, this doesn't make sence. And why did she even metion how she invited the wind to take a seat and give a sofa to the air when everyone knows that the wind can't hold anything because of gravity.

No Bone had He to bind Him — His Speech was like the Push Of numerous Humming Birds at once From a superior Bush —

I get this fealing that she is not talking about the wind because she is describing everything wind doesn't have, but maybe by saying that she is talking about something different. I don't understand what humming birds have to do with wind since the wind would probably carries the sounds of the birds away. 1203706945

I too do not like this poem. I don't understand why Dickinson chose such a powerful element, the wind, and decided to compare to a man, because at times man (in the sense of all human beings) can be very weak. The first line of the first stanza is where I think it is kinda of contradicting:

The Wind -- tapped like a tired Man --

Tired men tap on doors, when I think of the wind I think of more intense actions, such as slamming doors.

Also The following stanza was confusing--but not in a way like I dont understand it, but in the way like why would she write this?

A Rapid — footless Guest — To offer whom a Chair Were as impossible as hand A Sofa to the Air —

This is just so weird...not just confusing, but weird. Chair....footless guest....wind. Obviously the wind doesn't have any human characteristics so you have to use personification, which she did, but having the option of sitting on a sofa isn't really the usual. 1203728299

the first stanza explains that the wind comes in her house, but it i like a tired man, because she kindly allows him inside.

the second stanza explains that she would offer hi a chair, but it is the wind so it is impossible for it to sit.

the third stanza explains that the wind is no bone. the wind makes noise and it sounds like humming birds.

the fourth stanza explains that the winds voice is like a musical tone.

the fifth stanza explains that the wind styed for a while, but then it left she was again alone.

1203886856

this poem was rather confusing to me. so of the comparisons that emily makes in this poem dont really make sence to me. And it starts at the very begining when she says that the wind tapped like a tired man. i didnt understand why a tired man would tap. The only conclusion that i could come to was that she was comparing the wind to an old man. there was also some confusing vocabulary in the poem. Such as the word Billow and Flitting. I didnt understand how she compared someones speech to the sound of a humming bird. 1203977232

I didn’t really like the way that this poem was described because it showed that she could again write about death in a way which made you think just so you can understand something like the afterlife. I really think that the first sentence which is ‘The wind tapped like a tired man’ was an impressive sentence and it is probably one of my favorites that could have been ever written by Emily. And she follows this way of doing her poems in later sentences which would make this poem really good. Except that I don't understand the things that she talks about in it. She isn’t really talking about a thing she is just showing of her special skills of writing and the way that she can make a simple thing like death have so many different feelings and actions that if you think about it hard enough you can see that it can really relate to the death of someone. The other thing that bothers me about Emily is that she has to write so much about death and it keeps on getting worse and worse.

1203984891hre

//**__Tough Words or Phrases__** My Residence//-i really do not understand the usage of the phrase inside the poem

//Sofa to the Air//-is it talking about the wind being air's sofa?

//Countenace-//i just don't get the meaning

//Billow//-do not understand this meaning either

//flurriedly//-i think it means like kind of lightly

Dinner party to the Wind Footless man to the Wind Humming Birds to the Wind
 * //__Compare/Contrast__//**

even though i did not really understand alot of the words or phrases in the poem i still got the jist of it. Dickinson was comparing a dinner party and guests coming to the wind. She had a few other comparisons with the poem but they are listed in their respected place. The wind tapped at the door, which to me this could be like an expierence poem kind of. it seems real, like someone going to the door becaue their door tapper, tapped because of the wind. It did not tap hard, but like a tired man. which is what the wind tapping the tapper thing sounds like. the same thing happened to me at my grandma's house who has one of those, i heard the door knock late at night and i went to the door, but there was no one there. i looked around and it turned out the wind was blowing so hard the knocker knocked itself. The poem talks about the wind sounding like a humming of birds, which sometimes together at the same note can sound like the wind whistling. the it says that the wind sounds like music blowing against the glass. which if you had been in a wind storm you know that the glass can bang and whistler pretty hard, just think of the shacks that they lived in at the time. then the wind stopped it's tapping and then dickinson was again alone in her room, because the wind and noise to her wa like a friend or a "guest."

1203987994

This poem was much harder to understand than others. It seemed as if the whole poem was just constant comparison. The wind is such a vast subject to talk about and I believe she could have made it better if she talked about one thing the wind does or did instead of her what seems to be vast selection. The wind tapped like a tired man seems just like disappointing or depressing I guess and I think that’s why a lot of people are getting turned off as soon as they read the first stanza/ lines of this poem. I did like or rather thought about the part where she said “a sofa to the air” it kind of catches you as you read because you think of a sofa in the air or at least I did and it made me think but the whole poem just seemed rather uninviting to me and it’s a subject that doesn’t interest me, this is one of her poems where she is describing something and she just sees it in such a different way than I do that nothing really meshes and you just read the poem and ask yourself all these questions. 1203990569

This poem was a very wierd poem for me to make sense of. It took me a little streching of my imagination to try to understand it. Therefore, my interpretation my be off. Here's my explanation of this poem: stanza 1- When the wind blows, it starts of lazily and slowy like a tired man. The wind directs you in a way, welcoming you like the host of a house. The narrator answers to the wind and them comes to it, or into the house of the "host."

stanza 2- A rapid footless guest is referring to the wind. It is impossible for wind to use a chair just as it is impossible to hand a sofa to air because air can obviously not recieve or hold objects.

stanza 3- Nothing holds the wind back. When wind blows harid, it is compared to a crowd of hummingbirds being scared out of a bush. The birds would be flying hurridley and spastically just like the wind blows.

stanza 5- This stanza is describing the wound of the wind. When you have glass bottles, (depending on the shape, size, or amount of liquid in the bottle) when air blows over the bottles, they all make a different tone. This is the sound that Emily Dickinson relates to when she thinks about wind.

stanza 6- The final stanza talks about when the wind dies down and leaves, the narrator is then "alone" with out the commotion of occupance of the wind.

This poem describes when a gust of wind comes. Its intensity builds then dies down. This poem looks at something as simple as wind and creates it into a detailed meaningful poem. 1204073293

This poem by Emily Dickinson wasnt one of my favorites. I think it was because I really didn't understand it that well. Some of the words I didnt know were...


 * Billow-cloud
 * Flitting- sudden movement, quickly
 * tremulous-weakly movement, or sound
 * Countenance-face

One thing I really liked was that she compared a man to wind. I like how she compared body parts and how they weren't there. Like for example the forth stanza, which was also one of my favorites through out the whole poem. In this poem Emily Dickinson is also very descriptive. I like this about a lot of her poems. Even when I don't understand them, the description helps to clear things up. This poem although it was weird, it was written in a really neat way. I think it is talking about how sometimes we can feel the presence of someone in a room, even when they aren't there. This is just an idea i came up with, but I am not sure. Overall this poem was ok. 1204076036

I to like everyone else had trouble with this poem but I guess I was able to take the main meaning from it. Dickinson is obviously comparing the wind to a man, she lets the "man", in her house. The whole poem just seemed to go back and forth comparing and contrasting and I really got so lost. In the 2nd stanza she talks about the wind as a rapid footless guest, which makes sense, and the part I really understood/liked was "Were as impossible as hand A Sofa to the Air." That line actually has a little bit of comedy in it which I was able to pick up, Dickinson meant she would of had to lift the sofa all the way up in the air for the wind to be able to sit down, which obviously makes sense. Also, with hla's words above I was able to make sense of the 4th stanza, she is saying the winds face was like a cloud, that made absolutely no sense to me before. Overall, this wasn't a bad poem. It was pretty easy to get the main understanding of what Dickinson was describing/comparing, but just some of the words and context she was using them in made this poem much more confusing. 1204154047

This poem is really confusing. It seems like the speaker wanted to get sime fresh air into her home, so she opened the door. Because of this, the wind blew into the house and stopped blowing soon after it began. I think she is comparing the wind blowing into her home to the experience of having a stranger quickly take a rest in her home and then coninuing on her way. I am not sure about this and I will admit that I am probably wrong. With this poem, it is really hard to tell what she is comparing. For the most part, Dickinson's poems are easy to comprehend, but this one was difficult. I am actually struggling to write this post. Overall, I did not like this poem. It was way too confusing and made no sense what so ever. I hope that her other poems will be less confusing.1204245699

I like everyone else had aome trouble with this poem but I think I was able to find the meaning of it. She is comparing nthe wind to a man, she lets this so called "man" chacter into her home. In the second stanza I think that it gave me a chuckle after a read it a few times cause I had to think because the the wind has no feet and it then ould be impossible for it to sit in a sofa. Hla also helped me out with the definitions or translations of those words. Now that makes a lot of sence to me. This poem was not one of my favorties that is forsure but the main idea was as clear as day but you had to do some digging to find the real treasure. 1204257291 - This is the poem of a lonely women contemplated the visit of a mysterious man-one not ther, but surely stlanding in front of her or siitting in her chair. This is a man she welcomes into the home, but she doesn't understand him. Still, she contemplates his speech, tapping and singing of sorts.When he leaves the author is not anything but "alone." That final word may be the most revealing of them all. This lady is sadly alone and this poem is the reflections of a lonely lady who is good at writting. 1204261941