This house has been far out at sea all night, The woods crashing through darkness, the

booming hills, Winds stampeding the fields under the window Floundering black astride and blinding wet Till day rose; then under an orange sky The hills had new places, and wind wielded Blade-light, luminous black and emerald, Flexing like the lens of a mad eye. At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as The coal-house door. Once I looked up Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope, The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace, At any second to bang and vanish with a flap; The wind flung a magpie away and a blackBack gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house Rang like some fine green goblet in the note That any second would shatter it. Now deep In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought, Or each other. We watch the fire blazing, And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on*, Seeing the window tremble to come in, Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.

Esta casa ha estado lejos de la orilla toda la noche El bosque golpeando en la oscuridad, las colinas retumbantes Estampida de vientos recorriendo los campos bajo la ventana Mecindose negro a horcajadas y segando la humedad Hasta alzarse el da. Bajo un cielo naranja Las colinas tenan nuevos lugares y el viento blandi Su luz afilada, luminoso negro y esmeralda Doblndose como la lente de un ojo perturbado A medioda trep por el lateral de la casa hasta llegar A la puerta de la carbonera. Una vez que busqu A travs del viento castigador que abollaba de mis ojos las esferas La tienda en las colinas retumb estirando fuertemente sus cables Los campos agitndose, el horizonte una mueca, En cualquier momento para golpear y esfumarse de un aletazo El viento arroj una urraca y una gaviota dorsinegra Se dobl lentamente cual barra de hierro. La casa Son como cierto cliz verde y frgil de tal modo Que en cualquier momento se hara aicos. Ahora profundos En los sillones, frente al gran fuego, sujetamos Nuestros corazones incapaces de entretenerse con un libro, un pensamiento O entre nosotros. Observamos el fuego arder Y sentimos las races de la casa moverse, pero ocultas, Viendo a la ventana temblar para colarse, Escuchando las piedras gritar bajo los confines.

*sit on: figurative, (keep silent about, not divulge), ocultar

The overall story of the poem is about a storm, and about the narrators responses to it. One of the ways in which Ted Hughes emphasizes the unfolding story is by using indicators of time. Each of the first three verses pinpoints the time exactly in the very first line: all night; Till day rose; At noon. Time is clearly an important theme here, and this is emphasized by the repetition of any second in the fourth and fifth verses.The punctuation often runs over, connecting some of the verses with the ones that follow them. "and blinding wet Till day rose" Notice the effect here: by running over the punctuation from verse one to verse two, the poet moves us from the stormy night into the beginning of a new day. The rhythm within the poem seems closely linked to its meanings. the monosyllabic nature of the words makes the reader slow right down as he or she reads it. This links closely to the image that is being described: the slow bending of the strong gull is emphasized by the slow, strong language used: a black-/Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The imagery in the poem links closely to its themes and structure. Through the strength of the word pictures that Hughes creates, he gives a sense that the weather is alive, that the storm has a personality of its own. The contrast between the weather and the people sheltering indoors makes a clear point about the relationship between humans and nature: these people seem minute in comparison to the huge force of the natural world.