"The Aim Was Song" by Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, CA. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech.

The Aim Was Song

Before man came to blow it right

The wind once blew itself untaught,

And did its loudest day and night

In any rough place where it caught.

Man came to tell it what was wrong:

It hadn't found the place to blow;

It blew too hard - the aim was song.
And listen - how it ought to go!

He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.

By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be -
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song - the wind could see.

This poem is a short, simple, and enjoyable story about how a man learned to make music by listening to the wind. After I read the poem, I realized the title was referring to the man trying to learn how to whistle and make music by imitating the wind. In the first stanza, line 1 "Before man came to blow it right" we know that the poem is talking about before man learned to whistle like the wind. Images of the wind's fierceness or violent blowing are created when Frost uses phrases like in stanza 1, line 2, "blew itself untaught" and line 3, "did its loudest day and night." He also uses "In any rough place where it caught" stanza 1, line 4, to show the wind's strength and uncontrolled blowing. The second stanza describes how the wind should be taken in the mouth and blown out in a controlled "measured" way. The third stanza explains how the man had learned to take in air and blow it out in measures and whistle to make music. Finally, the fourth stanza is where the wind should blow to make song. This was the "right" place for the wind to blow according to the man. Throughout the whole poem, it is as if man is telling the wind the proper or "right" way to blow. If you actually listen to the poem out loud you can hear the iambic tetrameter with end rhymes that Frost uses to create a regular rhythm like music.