"The Aim Was Song" by Robert Frost

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.

In My Own Words:

“Before the wind learned its great lesson from mankind, it was wild and chaotic. It blew every direction with no purpose. But then, mankind came along and taught the wind what it was doing wrong: it was blowing too hard. Mankind was trying to produce music. Mankind showed the wind how to become a song by inhaling, and letting the breath go in a musical note. He created measures, lyrics, and notes, and the chaotic wind became what it was meant to be all along: music, delicately and carefully harnessed.”

I discussed this lovely poem in a recent class with my fourth graders. Happily, the students seemed to grasp the meaning right away. We spent less time than usual translating it into our own words because they were eager to discuss the total meaning and to draw connections.

Some quotes from my students during this eager class session, essentially unprompted by me:

“The wind was crazy until mankind taught it to do something good, and then it was beautiful. And then it knew it was always supposed to be beautiful.”

“It reminds me of the way you look when you try to do something for the first time. Before someone teaches you and you can practice what you learned.”

“This is like what children are,” one of them said.
“Oh?” I asked. I wanted to encourage her. “Go on,” I said.
”Like, when they go to school. Kids are crazy when they don’t know anything, but then they learn important stuff at school and become what they are meant to be.”

This was a connection I’d held in my own mind for a long time, but didn’t think it was something I would share with the class, or at least not right away—it seemed quite a leap for a young child! Imagine my surprise to hear it come, unbidden, from a tiny nine-year-old girl.

I adore Robert Frost’s poetry, and this poem is a good example of why. It is simple and earnest, with an amazing knack for pointing out unnoticed beauty. Additionally, his poetry can often shed light on more than just the physical manifestation of what he writes about, so it can be enjoyed at different levels, making many of his works perfect to share with children.