Western Wind

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1500

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Ideological Context

Since the exact date of the anonymous author’s creation of “Western Wind” is unknown, with possible time frames ranging from the 1300s through the 1600s, placing the poem within an exact contextual framework is challenging. However, looking at the religious context of the poem provides some consistency across all of these periods of composition. Christianity has influenced English history since St. Augustine arrived on English soil in the second century and began converting the Anglo-Saxons. By the Middle Ages, when the lyrics of “Western Wind” possibly originated, England was a Roman Catholic nation. Catholicism served as the main religion until Henry VIII split with the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 following Pope Clement VII’s refusal to annul King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon’s marriage. The Protestant Church of England resulted from this separation. While a Catholic monarch did once again stand on the English throne with Queen Mary in 1553, Queen Elizabeth I once more restored the Church of England as the primary faith when she gained the throne in 1558 (“Church of England.” Britannica). Therefore, whether “Western Wind” was composed under the influence of Catholicism or the influence of the Church of England, a definite, Christian influence exerted itself through the poem’s composer. This influence is observable in the third line of the poem when the speaker exclaims “Christ!” Because of the religious influence of the time, Jesus Christ is the figure to whom the speaker is capable of calling for assistance.

The poem has also influenced the religious climate surrounding it. The tune to which the poem was originally set inspired sixteenth-century English composers such as John Taverner. A series of musical pieces titled Three Masses, “composed by John Taverner, Christopher Tye and John Shepherd, probably in the second quarter of the century have become known by the captions ‘Westron Wynde’ and ‘The Westerne Wynde’” (Frey, “Interpreting ‘Western Wind'.” ELH, vol. 43, no. 3, Autumn 1976, pp. 259-278).

Social Context

An exploration of the class structure of England during the Middle Ages offers readers some possible insight and context on the speaker of “Western Wind.” The first written appearance of “Western Wind” occurs in a manuscript, a “part-book owned by a musician in the court of Henry VIII” (Frey, “Interpreting ‘Western Wind'.” ELH, vol. 43, no. 3, Autumn 1976, pp. 259 - 278). Within Tudor England, the period in which this manuscript appears, there was a set societal structure with only infrequent opportunities for upward social mobility. At the top of the social ladder sat the king and the queen, with the noblemen and noblewomen of the gentry beneath them. These gentry were “born rich and came from families with titles - Barons, Earls and Dukes” (“The Tudors - Society.” History on the Net).

Beneath the gentry were the yeomen, merchants and craftsmen. Craftsmen did skilled work, merchants traded goods, and yeomen “were rich enough to own their own houses and employ servants...They were successful farmers and were rich enough to be able to afford labourers [sic] to do the heavy farming jobs for them” (“The Tudors - Society.” History on the Net). Beneath these middle class individuals were the laborers, vagrants, and beggars. The laboring class worked primarily for the aforementioned yeomen or in workshops. While laborers were paid for their work, they had the most strenuous workload of all in the Tudor social ladder. If “Western Wind” is read within this social and historical context, readers may assume that the speaker of the poem belongs to the laboring class. They would be the ones working outside in the open air, and the ones most concerned with weather conditions as they conducted their work. Working such long hours under such harsh conditions, they would likely become exasperated and frustrated at their infrequent respite. Even if “Western Wind” were placed in an earlier context, perhaps the 13th or 14th centuries, the social structure would be rather similar, possibly even stricter and more confining to the lower classes. In either context, the speaker appears as someone of a lower class frustrated and discontent with their current place in life.