Who Has Seen the Wind? Essay Questions

Explain how Rossetti's lesson about the wind might extend more broadly to other aspects of life.

In only 8 lines, Christina Rossetti's "Who has seen the wind" aptly delivers a charming nursery rhyme about the wind and a thought-provoking lesson on faith. At first glance, this poem might seem to be merely a lesson in faith; although one cannot see the wind, its effects are visible in the trees and elsewhere. Noting that Rossetti was a markedly religious woman allows one to extend this lesson more broadly to stand in for one's faith in a divinity. Although one might not be able to see a divine being such as God, faith can be used to infer indirect signs of such a presence. Although the poem limits itself to discussing the wind’s invisibility, it also stretches to cover the nature of faith, and the human capacity to look for evidence of invisible phenomena in the world.

Although Rossetti's poem might be read as a didactic nursery rhyme, how does her use of poetic devices such as imagery and anthropomorphism speak to more mature readers?

An attention to the nuanced poetic devices of Christina Rossetti's "Who has the seen the wind?" helps elucidate a more philosophical reading than the nursery rhyme might immediately offer. Although largely a lesson on drawing indirect evidence for invisible phenomena, Rossetti's use of imagery and anthropomorphism allows her to touch upon the question of the sublime in nature. By personifying the trees through anthropomorphism, Rossetti transforms indirect evidence of the wind into a direct experience. Personified, the trees and their leaves are given emotions that are rendered explicit with the striking images from lines 3 and 7. "The leaves hang trembling" and "the trees bow down their heads," both instances of fear, awe, and deference in the face of a sublime nature. Through these two poetic devices, Rossetti's poem effectively translates the sublime experience of being exposed to the unseen, yet quite present wind.