Introduction

I am going to analyse the “Ode to the West Wind”. This is a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the autumn of 1819 and it was published in “Prometheus Unbound”.

In this poem an abstract quality of Nature, as is wind, is personified and addressed. The poet describes the activities of the west wind on the earth, in the sky and on the sea, and then expresses his envy for the freedom of that natural element, and his wish to be free like the wind.

“Ode to the West Wind”

I.
O, WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O, thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving every where;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O, hear!

II.
Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O, hear!

III.
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: O, hear!

IV.
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O, uncontroulable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V.
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (1)

Analysis

This poem is written in terza rima. There are five 14-lined stanzas of iambic pentameter, each of this stanzas contain four tercets of interlocking rhyme and a closing couplet. The rhyme scheme is: ABA BCB CDC DED EE.

Interpretation of the poem

“Ode to the West Wind” can be divided into two parts: the fist three stanzas are about the qualities of the wind. The first one describes the wind’s effects on the land, the second stanza addresses the wind’s influence on the sky and the third discusses its effects on the sea. Whereas the first three stanzas give a relation between the wind and the speaker, there is a turn in the fourth stanza, the focus is now on the speaker.

The first stanza starts with “wild West Wind”, with this phrase the reader gets the impression that the wind is something that lives because he is “wild”. And then with “breath Autumn’s being” there is a manifestation of spiritual energy, associated with the spirit of life itself. This stanza contains many allusions to death.

“Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead / Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,” (lines 2 and 3) this suggests that, like a sorcerer might frighten away spirits, the wind scatters leaves. “ghosts” has the sense of death, but also life after death. And the “enchanter” emphasizes the supernatural power of the west wind, the reference to enchantment anticipates the reference to the “Pestilence-stricken multitudes” hypnotised by the dance of Death.

“Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, / Pestilence-stricken multitudes!” (lines 4 and 5) here colours indicate the different tones of the leaves, but colours can also represent different cultures, this idea is supported by the phrase “like a corpse within its grave” (line 8) that means that each person takes part in the natural cycle of life and death.

“Each like a corpse within its grave” (line 8) with this words Shelley personified leaves. Here leaves are as people within their graves, this image makes us return to the lines 4 and 5 where leaves are considered “multitudes” of people.

“azure sister of the Spring” (line 9) refers to the clear blue sky in Spring. The phrase is related to the sweet west wind of spring, more sweet than autumn’s wind. The wind of spring is pictured as awakening nature with her “clarion” (line 10) that is a trumpet. The clarion is always associated with the Resurrection, but here it is associated with the image of the shepherdess summoning her flocks.

“Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; / Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!” (lines 13 and 14) this is the conclusion of the first stanza. The speaker identifies the wind as the powerful spirit of nature that incorporates both, destruction and continuing life: “Destroyer and preserver” (line 14). These two processes are related because without destruction life can not continue.

In the second stanza, Shelley spans his vision from the earthly scene to take in the vaster commotion of the skies. This stanza is concerned with the violence and terror of air storms, and it begins with a description, which express the powerful espectacle of turbulences.

“Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, / Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean, / Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread” (lines 16 to 18). With “decaying leaves” (line 16) continues with the reference of leaves of the first stanza. “the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean” this means that the line between the sky and the ocean is indistinguishable. “Angels” (line 18) here refers to the clouds, because clouds are messengers of thunderstorms and rain, and help also to build the atmosphere of the supernatural energies.

“Like the bright hair uplifted from the head / Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge / Of the horizon to the zenith's height, / The locks of the approaching storm.” (lines 20 to 23). When Shelley was in Florence saw a sculpture of four maenads (Roman god of wine and vegetation) dancing women with streaming hair. This Roman god is associated with the natural world and wind and clouds are elements of nature.

“Thou dirge / Of the dying year, to which this closing night / Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, / Vaulted with all thy congregated might / Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere / Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!” (lines 23 to 28). “dirge” (line 23) this word emphasize the terrifying darkness of the storm scene, with its darkness and associations with death. And then, in the last five lines, there is an image that the darkened sky is compared with a cathedral’s interior with the clouds forming the roof and with lots of images of death and of the apocalyose: “dying year” (line 24), “vast sepulchre” (line 26), etc.

From what is known of the wind from the last two stanzas it became clear that the “wind” is something that plays the role of a creator. In the third stanza the “West Wind” has power over the sea. This stanza starts with an image of calm, the Mediterranean Sea is a picture of tranquillity, but the wind can break this calm with an autumn storm.

“Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay, / And saw in sleep old palaces and towers” (lines 32 and 33). Baie is an Italian town that as a result of volcanic activity is now an underwater garden. In 1818 Shelley travelled to this town. With this phrase Shelley shows us a reflection on the transitoriness of human authority when set against the forces of nature, manifested in phenomenon such as volcanoes and tempests.(2)

“Thou / For whose path the Atlantic's level powers / Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below” (lines 36 to 38) here the speaker disturbs the peace of the seascape and reminds the West Wind with “Atlantic’s level powers” (line 37): Atlantic is where the west wind is originated.

“The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear / The sapless foliage of the ocean, know / Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, / And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!” (lines 39 to 42). The sea foliage, which is “sapless” (line 40) because the plants are underwater, is aware of the wind’s ability to destroy. The plants at the bottom of the ocean fall under the influence of the west wind which announces the change of the season. With the last lines of the poem the speaker want to say that the natural cycles of death and regeneration continue even underwater, with the aid of the west wind. The reader has to recognise the force of nature with the example of this city that fall under the forces of time and of nature.

The first three stanzas of this poem began with “O WILD West Wind” (line 1) and “Thou” (lines 15 and 29) directed to the wind. There is a change in the fourth stanza the focus is on the speaker who says “If I…”.

“If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; / If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;” as Angela Leighton says in her book, the conditional tense becomes the measure of the poet’s aspiration to speak. The speaker identifies himself with the three elements of the natural world: the land, the sky and the sea.(3)

“Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even / I were as in my boyhood, and could be / The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven, / As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed / Scarce seem'd a vision—I would ne'er have striven / As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. / O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!” (lines 47 to 53) The wind is not subject by the forces of self-regulation, he is asking for a return to the energy he felt as a child. Here the speaker identifies himself with the wind, although he knows that he cannot do that. “O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!” (line 53) the speaker knows that it is something impossible to achieve, but the speaker doesn’t stop praying for it.

“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! / A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd / One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud.” (lines 54 to 56). The speaker recalls his or her younger years when he was “tameless, and swift, and proud” (line 56) like the wind. This recollection helps the speaker to call on the wind for inspiration and new life. The poem suggests that humans are part of the natural cycle of life.

Shelley leaves the fourth element, the fire, with this he breaks the symmetry of the poem because the reader does not meet the fire until the fifth stanza.

In the fifth stanza the wind is very important again, because the poet becomes the wind’s instrument, “Make me thy lyre” (line 57), the lyre is a very typical image in romanticism, it is a symbol of the poet’s own passivity towards the wind. With this words Shelley makes the direct connection with his need to be inspired by seeing the wind’s force.

“What if my leaves are falling like its own? / The tumult of thy mighty harmonies / Will take from both a deep autumnal tone, / Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, /My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!” (lines 58 to 62), the speaker accepts his sufferings, he realizes that the wind’s power may allow him to add harmony to autumn’s music. He realizes that he is part of a natural cycle.

In this stanza we can see many plural forms, for instance “my leaves” (lines 58 and 64), “thy harmonies” (line 59), “my lips” (line 68)… by the use of the plural, the poet is able to show that there is some kind of peace in his words.

“Drive my dead thoughts over the universe” (line 63), that phrase means that the wind can help the speaker to spread his message across the universe.

“Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth” (line68) go back to the first lines of the poem, but now takes on additional associations, the attempt to bring ideas in the death Earth.

“The trumpet of a prophecy!” (line 69) recall the Angels “clarion” (line 10). This call is associated with the spring, it would be a proclamation of a new era in human society, preceded by the apocalyptic energy, symbolised by the west wind.

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” (line 70). This last line is a statement that is phrased as a question but is a note of expectancy rather than an affirmation. This question might appear rhetorical but indicates Shelley’s own uncertainty. The speaker has made his case to assist the wind in the declaration of a new age. This hope a social change, but it has not yet happen.

Conclusion

Whereas some Romantic poets viewed nature as a source of truth, others largery viewed nature as a source of beauty. In this poem, Shelley links nature with art by finding powerful natural metaphors with which to express his ideas about the power, quality and ultimate effect of aesthetic expression.

The “Ode to the West Wind” shows us that rebirth is something that can be fulfilled through spiritual growing. This poem shows us in a very explicit way the topic of the regeneration and decline to the heart.

(1) http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/westwind.html(23rd November)

(2) http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/ode.htm(23rd November)

(3) Angela Leighton: Shelley and the sublime. An interpretation of the major poems. Cambidge University Press (1984).

Bibliography

- Angela Leighton: Shelley and the sublime. An interpretation of the major poems. Cambidge University Press (1984).

- Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat: Shelley’s poetry and prose. Norton and Company (2001).

- Alasdair D. F. Macrae: Percy Bysshe Shelley, selected poetry and prose. Routledge (1991).

- http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/ode.htm (23rd November). Homepage: http://www.newi.ac.uk/en

- http://www.gale.com/free_resources/poets/poems/odewest_ex.htm (23rd November). Homepage: http://www.gale.com

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_the_West_Wind (23rd November). Homepage: www.wikipedia.org

- http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/westwind.html (23rd November). Homepage: www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/index.html