To the Roaring Wind

To the Roaring Wind - context Summary

Published in Harmonium, 1923

This very short lyric was first published in Wallace Stevens’ collection Harmonium (1923). Placed among his early poems, it stages a meditative address to a stormy or restless wind, asking it to produce a precise, even sacred sound: a sought "syllable." The poem compresses Stevens’ interest in language, sound, and the imagination into an imperative invocation that links voice, sleep, and distant meaning.