Ode to the West Wind

• Context

  • Written in Italy in 1819, a few months after the Peterloo Massacre.
  • The Peterloo Massacre was a time of unemployment, famine, and violence.
  • Shelley was sorrowful about his inability to help those back in England, in this poem expressing hope that he can inspire/influence those who read it.
  • Around 60,000 people gathered to protest for political change and the right to vote.
• Theme of death and rebirth

  • The West Wind is presented as a powerful and destructive force.
  • The speaker celebrates the West Wind and welcomes the destruction that is causes because it is necessary for renewal and rebirth.
  • Autumn is a transitional season, when summer's abundance begins to fade. The West Wind drives away this peace and abundance.
  • West Wind is both "preserver" and "destroyer," linking to traditional names of two Hindu Gods, Shiva and Vishnu.
  • The wind merges these opposites because death is required for life, and winter for spring.
• Theme of poetry and rebirth

  • The speaker admires the West Wind so he wants to take, adopt, or absorb the wind's power into his poetry (and perhaps himself).
  • The wind seems to become the speaker, or part of him, suggested by "Be thou me."
  • "make me thy lyre" conveys the speaker's desire to be a musical instrument for the wind, an instrument traditionally played by poets while they perform their poems.
  • The speaker wants to be (or to help) the West Wind due to his desire to create something new, perhaps a new society as the poem can be interpreted as a call for political change.
  • This change can only emerge through the cleansing destruction that the West Wind brings.
• Structure

  • Ode, iambic pentameter.
  • The poem follows a clear structure which breaks occasionally through caesura, forming a sense of velocity and energy.
  • Rhyme links to the wind/seasons, there is some change within the rhyme but it always comes back, mirroring the seasons.
• "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being"

  • West Wind is personified throughout, seems powerful.
  • Apostrophe directly addresses the wind, highlighting its importance which is emphasised by capitalisation throughout.
  • Alliteration adds to the sense of wildness while also mimicking the gushing of the wind.
  • "wild" illustrates wind as uncontrollable and untameable.
  • "breath of Autumn's being" is ironic as "Autumn" links to death and decay.
• "whose unseen presence the leaves dead // Are driven, like ghosts"

  • "unseen presence" may be a biblical reference to the holy spirit. The speaker praises the West Wind, worshipping it as if it were a spiritual being.
  • Highlights wind's importance as a major part of the circle of life, taking away the dead leaves.
  • Enjambement emphasises death and its inevitability.
  • Simile portrays wind as supernaturally powerful and sinister, associated with death.
• "Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere; // Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!"

  • Repeated adjective "wild" conveys the wind's untameable power.
  • "spirit" reinforces previous biblical imagery of the wind being worshipped by the speaker, as if it were the holy spirit.
  • "everywhere" is all encompassing, reflecting the wind's tremendous power. The imperfect rhyme knocks the poem out of alignment.
  • Religious reference to Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. The West Wind merges these opposites as one cannot exist without the other.
  • Repetition of "hear" suggests desperation and urgency, emphasised by the exclamation.
• "Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear!"

  • Biblical imagery of Judgement Day, reflecting the inevitability of death.
  • Links to the seventh plague of Egypt, a semantic field of death, showing humans
  • Colour imagery of "black" connotes evil, highlighting the West Wind's violent, destructive force.
  • Anaphora of "hear" (exclamatory demand) emphasises speaker's desperation.
• "The blue Mediterranean , where he lay, // Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams"

  • Personified "Mediterranean" makes it seem important.
  • "Lulled" suggests a sense of tranquility and calmness.
  • 'L' sounds mimic the calm effect of the water, shortly to be woken up and disrupted.
  • The semantic field of sleep ("dreams", "lay," and "sleep") contrasts the active West Wind.
• "For whose path the Atlantic's level powers // Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below"

  • Enjambment emphasises the shift from calm to rough waters shown by "powers" and "cleave."
  • "Atlantic's level powers" has soft, long vowels which contrast with the sharpness of "cleave" with the hard 'c' conveying a sudden change.
  • "Cleave" meaning stick together or split apart. Shelley may be alluding to connection and separation, perhaps linking to the separation of him and his son William, but connected to him through the wind.
• "If I were..."

  • Anaphora and the parallel structure reflects the force of the speaker's desires to be one with nature to feel its power.
  • The first person highlights vulnerability.
  • Hypothetical situations show the poet acknowledges the West Wind's power, wanting to become a "dead leaf" or "swift cloud" to feel and experience it.
• "share the impulse of thy strength, only less free // Than thou, O uncontrollable!"

  • The speaker wants to have or "share" some of the West Wind's power, with the plosive alliteration of "pant" and "power" presenting the relationship between them, pushing to the limits of his abilities.
  • "uncontrollable" reinforces the wind's strength.
  • The speaker acknowledges that he can never be as "free" as the wind, but desires to "share" in some of this freedom nonetheless while only being "less free".
  • Exclamation highlights the speaker's praise and worship of the West Wind.
• "If even // I were as in my boyhood and could be // the comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven"

  • "boyhood" links to the Romantic idea of the innocence of children, with youth connoting energy, with the speaker feeling that anything was possible in his youth.
  • Childhood as a space of freedom and possibility.
  • Phrase "could be" suggests a sense of longing or mourning , the speaker feels nostalgic for his lost youth and freedom.
  • "comrade" implies the speaker wants to work alongside the West Wind to create change, perhaps political change within society.
  • "even" and "Heaven" are slant rhymes. The failure to rhyme suggests the speaker's failures in reaching his dreams and desires, suggesting a sense of frustration and disappointment.
• "prayer in my sore need."

  • The speaker prays to nature instead of God, displaying a deeper connection with nature than Christianity.
  • Seems desperate and resorts to prayers, clinging to anything (even faith).
• "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"

  • Symbolic or metaphorical for obstacles and challenges that have stripped the speaker of his potential and essence.
  • Repeated exclamation suggests suffering and desperation.
  • Juxtaposition between life and death, as well as the upsides and downsides of nature shown by "thorns" presenting a darker side of the beauty of nature.
  • "thorns of life" may be a biblical reference to Jesus' crucifixion and crown of thorns, highlights pain.
  • "I bleed" takes over "I hear," poet addresses own troubled self rather than worshipping the West Wind.
• "Chained and bowed"

  • Imagery of restraint and the limits of human life, reflecting the speaker's desire to be free like the West Wind.
  • "bowed"may be a comment on ageing, humans get weaker as they get older, less freedom due to physical limitations.
• "Make me thy lyre"

  • The speaker wants to be a musical instrument for the West Wind, acting as its messenger, portraying it in a God-like light.
  • The "lyre" was traditionally used by poets when performing their poems.
  • Lyre = symbol of Apollo (god of healing, the sun, poetry), linking to Shelley's work of healing what man has become.
  • Apollo lost a human lover (Hyancinthus) due to the actions of the West Wind Zephyr. The wind brings death, linking to Shelley's deceased children.
• "The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, // If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind ?"

  • "trumpet of a prophecy" may be a biblical reference to a trumpet blown in the Bible, symbolising the end of the world (Judgement Day) perhaps also linking to Shelley's own impending death.
  • Rhetorical question has spiritual symbolism, with "winter" connoting death and decay, and "spring" being a more hopeful season, connoting growth.
  • This rhetorical question could perhaps be Shelley pondering the afterlife.
  • Capitalised "wind" and seasons reflect importance and power.