The Wind Blows from the East

I taught Whittier's poem "Snowbound" to my juniors for many years, and I always tried to schedule the Fireside Poets during the winter months.

In the first stanza, one of the lines stood out to me.....

The sun that brief December day

Rose cheerless over hills of gray,

And, darkly circled, gave at noon

A sadder light than waning moon.

Slow tracing down the thickening sky

Its mute and ominous prophecy,

A portent seeming less than threat,

It sank from sight before it set.

A chill no coat, however stout,

Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,

A hard, dull bitterness of cold,

That checked, mid-vein, the circling race

Of life-blood in the sharpened face,

The wind blew east; we heard the roar

Of Ocean on his wintry shore,

And felt the strong pulse throbbing there

Beat with low rhythm our inland air.

One of the teacher notes focused on that line and how Whittier was referring to what we know as an east wind and how winds from that direction were especially harsh and brutal.  Always more rain.  Always a fiercer wind.  Always more snow.

I remember also that the test (and I took questions from the standardized test questions that came with the teaching materials along with adding some of my own) included a multiple choice question about the direction of the wind.

I also remember two students, Anthony Gutwein and his cousin Kevin Gutwein, who both answered incorrectly, then challenged me as to the validity of that question even being on a literature test.

Who cares what direction the wind blew?  How are they supposed to remember every little detail from a poem  that is stupid anyway?  After all none of them are English majors and none of them really care anything at all about what we are reading and to expect them to remember insignificant facts from a line of a poem is ridiculous.

All the while, and they even stood up and shook their fists at me and pointed their fingers at me for effect, I stood calmly (I think...I might have been red-faced and steam was probably escaping from my ears), then I explained how Life Lessons are also part of any class and a good teacher will include them.

Repeating the information about the east wind and the life knowledge gained from Whittier's lines, I stood firm with the question and its answer and its inclusion on the test.

Funny how one of the weather guys on a television station repeated the same information that very evening and funny how many students told me about it the next day which validated what I had said in my defense.

I always think of that when the east wind is blowing--which it is today.  The snow is coming down heavily and the wind is blowing from the east to the west.

But I always always think of it whenever I hear the names of  Kevin and Anthony.  My hope that they have grown up as adults and, if they remember the incident, can feel a little ashamed of their behavior.  But sadly, that isn't true.  When Hilary was asked to photograph family pictures for that family last year, guess who was the most difficult person to pose in any of the family groups? 

Some things just don't change, I guess.  Even the wind.