About the house go terrible winds in flight,
Out of the hiss and wash of sleepless seas
Half-drowning voices scream wild messages
Into the hungry belly of the night,
And icy-breasted clouds conceal the white
Souls of the stars, and in their bosoms freeze
The citadel of the moon, to whom gaunt trees
Stretch desperate arms that seem to pray for light.
Even so in me the elemental war
Strives fiercely to obliterate the heights,
And while the faint flesh staggers up the steeps
The naked spirit cries upon its star
That somewhere dwells among the eternal lights
Beyond this dreadful battle of the deeps.
Poem by Eleanor Farjeon
Meaning of Storm Sonnet Poem by Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon’s “Storm Sonnet” is a vivid metaphorical exploration of inner turmoil, using the imagery of a violent natural storm to reflect the soul’s spiritual struggle. The poem opens with a house besieged by howling winds, crashing seas, and obscured moonlight; a night so turbulent that even the stars seem frozen and unreachable.
This external chaos mirrors an “elemental war” within the speaker. The battle is not only physical but existential: the body strains upward through difficulty, while the spirit desperately seeks its guiding light – its “star” – beyond the darkness. The imagery of trees reaching for the moon symbolises a longing for hope or transcendence in the midst of despair.
Farjeon presents this inner struggle as a universal part of the human experience: the conflict between weakness and aspiration, fear and faith. Yet the closing lines offer a quiet resilience: beyond the chaos lies something eternal, something luminous. The poem affirms that even in life’s darkest, most violent storms, the spirit reaches for what endures… a source of light beyond the battle.
