Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and he is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. He is perhaps more famous for such anthology pieces as “Ozymandias”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark” and “The Masque of Anarchy” . However, his major works were long visionary poems. And as his contemporaries did, the poems that he produced were dealing with: nature, to see the artist as a creator, to believe in the goodness of human being and to be against rationalism and to exalt the feelings. Above all, it was the effects of the French Revolution. He was influenced by Wordsworth's poetry and a regular conversation with Byron had an important effect on his poetry, but he influenced Byron's poetry too. Shelley became the idol of some of the next generations of poets, and he is famous for his association with some contemporaries as: John Keats (with whom his death inspired Shelley to write the elegy “Adonais” ) and Lord Byron. (< http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1879.html >) and (< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley >).

But now, we are going to talk about an other of his poems, “Ode to the West Wind” , which was composed in 1819 and it was published in 1820. (< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_the_West_Wind >).

The poem consists in five stanzas, and it is divided in two parts. We can see this division looking at the end of the three first stanzas, which finish with the same words: <<Oh hear!>> . These three first stanzas give a relation between the speaker and the wind, therefore, them describe the wind's effects upon earth, air, and ocean. And in the last two stanzas the poet is speaking to the wind and asking for its power, then, the most important thing here is the speaker, that in this case is a hearer.

Firstly, the first stanza is about the wind: a <<WILD West Wind>> and this is a personification of the wind that makes we see the wind as something that can live because he is <<wild>> as an animal or a person. But it is <<like ghosts>> , <<like a corpse within its grave>> because the <<unseen presence the leaves dead are driven>> . The wind is a <<Wild Spirit>> , a <<Destroyer>> and a <<Preserver>>. And Shelley talks directly to the wind: <<O thou>> and in <<O hear!>> it refers to the wind, who is an <<enchanter>> .

Secondly, the wind is an element of Nature that has a lot of power, because of it the weather can be good or bad. <<Clouds>> are <<Angels of rain>> which can be the messengers of Heaven that transmit us the information through the weather (lightning and rain). Then, the wind is like a prophet, because he tells us the word of God. And the poet is praying for him (the wind): <<O hear!>>.

Thirdly, the << Mediterranean >> sea is like a <<summer-dream> , with <<his crystalline streams>> . It is like a dream where the poet can see <<old palaces and towers quivering within the wave's intenser day>> , as a city underwater with his <<sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear the sapless foliage of the ocean>>. But is this a city that really exists on the coast, or is this an illusion? A peaceful underwater world. The wind can produce illusions on the water, the wind <<would waken the appearance of a city>> . Now the wind is like a Creator, contrasting it with the word <<Destroyer>> in the first stanza. The west wind announces that the season is going to change.

Fourthly, until here the poem was giving more importance to the wind and its forces, but now the author is the most important character. The author talks about himself, and we can see it because Shelley uses the personal and possessive pronouns in first person singular: << I >>,<< my>>, and <<me>> . Now, <<leaf>> , <<cloud>> , and <<wave>> exist together with the poet, and Shelley wants to be them: <<If I were a…>> , the poet feels he is here the wind, but it is impossible to achieve and he prays for getting it. Then, here the concept of rebirth appears as the only solution that the poet finds to be as a wave, leaf or cloud: <<Oh, lift me up as a wave, a leaf, a cloud>> because when he will die he can be born a second time as a natural element and not as a human being, therefore, he will can get what he wants to be. Now, Shelley is praying or confessing, but he does not address to God, it does it in a general form. As the wind is like God, it is <<uncontrollable>> .

Finally, we can find here the fourth of the natural elements that appear in the poem: the fire, because in the three previous stanzas the air, the earth, and the water appear, but not in the four one. The wind becomes a Creator of sounds, which can blow the leaves. Now, the poet has the <<capacity to communicate with the wind>> . The poets is the wind's instrument, the <<lyre>> , his musician, and the wind is an incantator because of <<the incantation of this verse>> . Here, the poet uses plural form, and the use of <<will>> is a reference to the future, then, we can see the poem as a <<prophecy>> . There is a rhetorical question: <<If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?>>, because spring does not come after winter, then, it means the change of seasons.

In conclusion, for Shelley, Nature represents a powerful entity which feels a complete indifference for man, because he was an atheist. Without having benevolent God to give reason and order to the world, Shelley lived in an intimidating universe of powerful and fractious components, and he shows us that Nature's power and splendour is beyond man's capability or comprehension.

(< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley >).

2. (< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_the_West_Wind >).

3. (<< http://www.bartleby.com/106/275.html >>) Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury.  1875. P. B. Shelley