"This house has been far out at sea all night"
In the first line, the speaker sets the poem's grave tone in a metaphor that likens his house to a ship at sea. From this image, the reader may immediately grasp the house's isolation, and detect the stormy undertones that will soon manifest as the poem moves forward. This line also establishes the sense of helplessness that grows stronger and persists through the end of the poem. By the end of the poem we will see that the metaphor works doubly: it is not just the physical house that is out at sea, but the household, the relationships that exist within the house, that face a "storm."
"...Now deep/ In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip/ Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought/ Or each other."
At the end of the poem, as the wind continues to rage outside, the speaker and his companion cannot concentrate on anything other than the impending doom surrounding them. The fire, usually a symbol of hope and warmth, could double as another destructive force waiting to be unleashed. The introduction of at least one other unknown figure transforms the poem from a meditation on nature's power to an exploration of the dark, tumultuous emotions that rage between people in some kind of intimate conflict.
"...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."
In the poem's last lines, the speaker and his companion continue to sit passively in front of the fire, either fully aware and accepting of their powerlessness to the wind, or simply choosing against action as the storm threatens to overtake their home. Their silence is countered by the noise outside: while the speaker and the second figure are unable to "entertain" anything other than their fire, the window "tremble[s]" and the stones "cry out under the horizons." This passivity opens the poem's resolution to interpretation: does the wind enter the house, wreaking havoc in their lives, or does the household stand strong against the forces that threaten it?
