Literary Devices in The Wind in the Willows

 

Let’s look at the literary devices within Grahame’s opening chapter. Great authors develop a style as a unique fingerprint; this is built of literary device balance, word choices and philosophical perspective. He shows a natural use of symbolism, for example:

 

• Spring represents hope.

• Winter represents hardship.

• Physical warmth represents emotional warmth.

• Physical coldness represents emotional coldness.

• A dangerous road represents a dangerous future.

• A calm river represents a calm and honest future.

 

He knew his poetic prose well, showing a range of skills within relatively humble writing. Indeed, his lyrical playfulness adds up to a sense of presence, a sense of ‘the man behind the ink.’ Grahame loved mood words, personification, alliteration, repetition and musical pacing. His flourishes of poetry include rhyming just as his prose often includes near-rhymes. The result of his literary skill is a welcoming prose that has lasted well over a century, entertaining adults and children, likely influencing the young J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis!  

 

How he achieved this is best explained with examples, as below.
 

Alliteration, Pace, Repetition and Near-Rhymes.

 

Alliteration is the starting sounds of words placed close enough to each other to have an auditory impact. Mostly it is done with clusters of similar sounds that are either adjacent or simply nearby. For instance:

 

“…sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow…”

 

Yet we also see the second main sounds of words being used too. When the start of one word is an added prefix such as: un-, in-, de-, sur-, pro-, pre-, be-... Then, the second sound is more significant and can be audible for alliterative impact. For example: 

 

“...insatiable sea..” 

 “... was bewitched…” 

 

Indeed, most of the time we see truly effective alliteration, it is subtle this way and combined with almost rhymes such as: 

 

“...of course… as is always the case.”

 

Repetition of key features such as a river is unavoidable, yet for the skilled writer it is also an opportunity to exaggerate its emotional impact. The river is everything to the second main character of this novel, Rat, and is spoken of with great care and love. It is personified as if it were a great storyteller and companion. Here we see the literary devices combine beautifully to create poetic prose with personification, alliteration, repetition, pacing and mood words!

 

“… full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh…”
 

Additionally, in chapter one, we can observe deliberate repetition of the words “whitewash” and “spring.” It is notable that Grahame often uses multiple repetitions of coordinating conjunction words (such as ‘and’ or ‘the’) to create a playful sense of pacing. The resulting prose feels child friendly, as if he were mimicking their speech patterns in order to communicate better. As Grahame’s stories were originally written for his young son, it’s a clever choice.  

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Literary Devices Highlighted

 

Okay, let’s take a longer look at the opening paragraphs of Wind in The Willows with a few features highlighted.

 

One: The River Bank

 

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. [PERSONIFICATION OF SPRING] Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

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“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than whitewashing!” The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.

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Learning Exercises

 

1. Re-draft One Scene! 

 

Choose your favourite scenes with your characters and re draft it as many times as you like. Add literary devices. Is there a broad range of imagery? What does your symbolism say? Sprinkle in alliteration and rhyming! Cluster those mood words! Play with sentence length to gain a musical rhythm. This kind of micro-learning builds skills before you tackle a larger volume.

 

Additionally, if you would like to learn more about literary devices, my book “The Sweet ‘n’ Salty Guide to Becoming a Poet, The Second Edition,” is a wonderful resource.

 

2. Write Your Story!
 

A good story needs preparation and you have been doing exactly that. It’s time to use your characters, setting and plot for a first draft. As you become more creative, it is likely that you will not do some things as well as usual. For instance, many young writers may forget to make paragraphs. Many many only add literary devices in later drafts. It’s normal. The human brain can only do so much at once - as it learns to ‘juggle more’ some things are accidentally dropped. 

 

Your own drafting process will be unique to you. Every writer is different. Keep going; keep re-drafting; keep building. Oftentimes it is better to not share plots or first drafts, but keep working on your story until it is more polished. Negative or luke-warm reactions can dampen your confidence. Overly enthusiastic responses can give a sense of accomplishment too early and reduce motivation. Everything you want is on the other side of consistency! Write every day!