WRITTEN REPORT IN

ENG/AM LIT.

ODE TO THE WEST WIND

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Submitted by: Quezon, Baisharene P.

Submitted to: Ms. Wilma Balon
 Percy Bysshe Shelley

Author, Poet, Playwright (17921822)

Born in Broadbridge Heath, England, on August 4, 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley is

one of the epic poets of the 19th century, and is best known for his classic
anthology verse works such as Ode to the West Wind and The Masque of Anarchy.
He is also well known for his long-form poetry, including Queen Mab and Alastor. He
went on many adventures with his second wife, Mary Shelley, the author
of Frankenstein. He drowned in a sudden storm while sailing in Viareggio Italy in
July 8, 1822.
 Ode to the West Wind

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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 wingd 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 everywhere;

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 Mnad, 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 chrystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Bai'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 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 seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh! 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.

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 wither'd 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?
 ODE TO THE WEST WIND SUMMARY

A first-person persona addresses the west wind in five stanzas. It is strong and
fearsome. In the first stanza, the wind blows the leaves of autumn. In the second
stanza, the wind blows the clouds in the sky. In the third stanza, the wind blows
across an island and the waves of the sea. In the fourth stanza, the persona
imagines being the leaf, cloud, or wave, sharing in the winds strength. He desires
to be lifted up rather than caught low on the thorns of life, for he sees himself as
like the wind: tameless, and swift, and proud. In the final stanza, he asks the
wind to play upon him like a lyre; he wants to share the winds fierce spirit. In turn,
he would have the power to spread his verse throughout the world, reawakening it.
 ELEMENTS OF THE POEM

I. STRUCTURE

The poem "Ode to the West Wind" consists of five sections written in terza rima.
Each section consists of four tercets (ABA, BCB, CDC, DED) and a rhyming
couplet (EE). It is the form used by Dante in his Divine Comedy. The Ode is
written in iambic pentameter. The tone of the speaker understandably includes
excitement, pleasure, joy, and hope.

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 wingd 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 everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!

The poem begins with three sections describing the wind's effects upon earth, air,
and ocean. The last two sections are Shelley speaking directly to the wind, asking
for its power, to lift him like a leaf, a cloud or a wave and make him its companion
in its wanderings. He asks the wind to take his thoughts and spread them all over
the world so that the youth are awoken with his ideas. The poem ends with an
optimistic note which is that if winter days are here then spring is not very far.

II. SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY, ALLEGORY

1.THE WEST WIND

The West Wind is the object of the speakers plea in this poem, the powerful force
that could deliver him from his inability to make himself heard or to communicate
his ideas to others. Blowing from the west suggests an association with the
revolutionary, liberating aspects of the young United States, or perhaps simply a
favorable wind for ships returning home to ports in Europe. Associated with
autumn, the West Wind brings with it decay and the certainty of a wintry death, but
it also makes a spring rebirth possible by clearing away the old dead leaves and
planting seeds.

Line 1: The West Wind is the object of an apostrophe at the beginning of

this line. This is the first time, and by no means the last, that the speaker will
apostrophize the wind. In fact, you could say that this whole poem is one
long apostrophe. You might also notice the excessive alliteration in this line:
"O wild West Wind" is a bit over the top.

Lines 5-7: The West Wind is personified here as the charioteer of the
"winged seeds" that it carries to their dormant rest in the earth during the
winter. Shelley will continue to personify the wind throughout the poem,
although it never becomes a fully-developed character.
 Line 14: The West Wind is described as "Destroyer and Preserver," which
some scholars think is an allusion to the Hindu gods Siva and Vishnu.
Line 14 also introduces the refrain of "Ode to the West Wind," "O hear!",
which appears at the end of the first three cantos.

Lines 18-23: The West Wind becomes part of a complex simile in these
lines: the storm clouds spread across the "blue surface" of the wind
are like a Mnads locks of hair. We know this is a simile and not a
metaphor because the word "Like" appears at the beginning of line 20.

2. DEAD LEAVES

Dead leaves are referenced no less than five times in this short lyric poem. Dead
leaves are the remnants of the previous season which the wind clears away; theyre
also a metaphorical representation of the pages of writing and poetry
generated by the speaker, or perhaps even the author. Once ideas are put
down on paper, theyre printed on the "leaves" of a book. At that point, they seem
to be declining.

Lines 2-5: The dead leaves are part of a complicated simile in these lines:
dead leaves blown away by the wind are like ghosts running away
from an enchanter.

Line 16: Here we learn that the clouds are "like Earths decaying leaves."
In the previous simile, the leaves were the main focus and the simile
created an image that told us more about them; here, the clouds are the
main focus and the leaves are used as an image that tells us more about
them.

Lines 64-66: The speaker compares his thoughts in a simile to "withered

leaves," which is a pun on the two meanings of "leaves" things that
drop off trees, but also the pages of a book. Since the speaker himself is
a poet who describes his plea to the West Wind as "the incantation of this
verse" (65), the pun is even more obvious. However, because this is a very
formal poem with heightened diction, wed prefer to call this a "play on
words" instead of a pun.

3. FUNERALS
Although there arent any literal funerals in "Ode to the West Wind," theres plenty
of funereal imagery and symbolism. Weve got dirges, corpses, the "dying year," a
sepulcher, and ashes, just to name a few. Of course, they dont all come at once
theyre spread throughout the poem as parts of different metaphors and trains of
images. Taken all together, though, they make us feel like this poem is a kind of
elegy (or lament) just as much as its an ode.

Lines 5-12: In an extended simile, Shelley compares seeds to corpses

lying in their graves. This is also an allusion to the Christian imagery
of the Apocalypse, in which a "Last Trumpet" is blown (here, the
Spring blows a "clarion," which is a kind of trumpet) in order to
resurrect the bodies of the dead (here, the corpses of the seeds,
which will come to life in the spring).

Lines 23-28: This extended metaphor compares the West Wind to a

dirge, the dying year to the dead man in a funeral, and the night sky
to the dome of a sepulchre. Toward the end of the metaphor, Shelleys
imagery breaks away from the strict correspondences of the metaphor, and
both the wind and the inside of the sepulchre become stormy. Its almost as
though, when the storm breaks, when "Black rain and fire and hail will
burst," the metaphor is broken down from inside.

Lines 65-67: The poem becomes a spell, or "incantation," by which the poet
hopes to make the West Wind scatter his words, which are metaphorically
described as "[a]shes and sparks." Some of the words have the power to
light new metaphorical "fires" under other poets and thinkers, while others
are already "dead."

4.THE OLIAN HARP

The olian harp was a common parlor instrument in the nineteenth century. Sort
of like a wind chime, the olian harp (or "olian lyre" or "wind harp") was meant
to be left in a windy spot, perhaps a window, so that the wind could play its own
natural tunes on the instrument. For Romantic poets like Shelley, Keats, Coleridge,
and Wordsworth, the olian harp came to represent the way that the individual
poet could turn himself into an instrument that expressed something more
universal about the natural world. In "Ode to the West Wind," Shelleys speaker
begs the West Wind to treat him as its lyre or trumpet or other instrument.
 Lines 57-58: The speaker apostrophizes the West Wind, asking it to
make him into a lyre. He actually wants to be turned into a passive
instrument or object.

Lines 59-61: Describing the "music" that the West Wind will draw from him
as its instrument, the speaker characterizes its "harmonies" as in
"tumult," a powerful paradox.

5.BODIES OF WATER

Although "Ode to the West Wind" is mostly about the wind, the middle of the poem
moves away from the airy breezes and considers a different element: water. This
slippage starts to happen in Canto II, where the wind is described as having a
"stream" (15) and a "blue surface" (19), which makes it sound like a body of
water. Were also reminded that the clouds being carried by the wind came
originally from the water that evaporated from the ocean and that theyll rain back
down into it. In the next canto, we learn how the wind wakes the Mediterranean
Sea from his "summer dreams" (29) and chops up the surface of the Atlantic
Ocean. The water almost washes away the wind for a moment there but the
poem reminds us that the West Wind is always stronger than the calm, passive
seas.

Lines 15-17: These lines combine intense imagery of the natural world
with a complex extended metaphor. In the metaphor, "decaying
leaves" falling from "tangled boughs" onto the earth are compared to
the clouds that come from "Heaven and Ocean." In other words, the
combination of Heaven, the sky with the sun in it, and Ocean, causes water
to evaporate into the sky and form clouds. These clouds then float on the
"stream" of the West Wind the way dead leaves float in a real stream.

Line 28: Here the water that has evaporated from the ocean rains back
down. To emphasize the violence and power of the storm, Shelley uses ten
one-syllable words in this line, creating a strong, harsh sound as is read
aloud.

Lines 29-30: The Mediterranean Sea is personified here as a

dreaming man, whom the wind can "waken" from "his summer dreams"
(29).
Lines 37-41: In three of these lines, the verb is placed at the end of the line. This
creates an enjambment that drives the reader from one line to the next; this is
rather like whats actually happening at this point in the poem: The Atlantic is
splitting itself into chasms of the west wind.

III. THEMES:

1. MAN AND THE NATURAL WORLD

In "Ode to the West Wind," Nature is grander and more powerful than man can
hope to be. The natural world is especially powerful because it contains elements
like the West Wind and the Spring Wind, which can travel invisibly across the globe,
affecting every cloud, leaf, and wave as they go. Man may be able to increase his
status by allowing Nature to channel itself through him.

In Shelleys "Ode to the West Wind," Natures power is greater than mans because
the natural world is cyclical and always capable of a rebirth with the turning of the
seasons, but human beings seem to just flower and fade.

2. TRANSFORMATION
As the speaker of "Ode to the West Wind" feels himself waning and decaying, he
begs the wind to use him as an instrument, inhabit him, distribute his ideas, or
prophesy through his mouth. He hopes to transform himself by uniting his own
spirit with the larger "Spirit" of the West Wind and of Nature itself.

Because the speaker is experiencing one kind of transformation, his own gradual
decline, he desires another kind of transformation, a fusion with the powers of
nature.

3. MORTALITY

The West Wind in Shelleys ode is depicted as an autumnal wind, preparing the
world for winter. As a result, the poem is filled with images of death and decay,
reminders of both natural and human mortalities. The speaker hopes that the death
of one world will be inevitably followed by a new rebirth and a new spring, but the
poem leaves this rebirth uncertain.

"Ode to the West Wind" suggests that death can be productive, because it creates
an opportunity for new life and rebirth.

4. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

At the end of "Ode to the West Wind," the speaker betrays his deepest concern: the
fate of his ideas. He hopes that his words and thoughts will be spread throughout
the world. Hes not sure of the quality of his thinking, but at least it can provide a
starting point for other thinkers.

The speaker has grand ideas, but needs the help of a force more powerful than
himself to make him heard.
 20 items Quiz

I. Read the following extract carefully. Encircle the letter of the correct
answer.

Oh Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

1. The season of the year presented in the poem is the ______.

a. Spring season c. Winter season

b. Autumn season d. Summer season
2. Whose unseen presence is being talked about?

a. Ghost c. West Wind

b. Dead leaves d. Enchanter

3. The poetic device used in the first line is _____?

a. A metaphor c. An irony
b. A simile d. An alliteration

Yellow, black and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

4. Yellow, black and pale... multitudes refer to the _____?

a. seeds c. insects
b. flowers d. leaves

5. The dark wintry bed is a _____?

a. Sleeping place which is in the dark

b. Sleeping place where its very cold
c. Bed which is dark as well as cold
d. Bed where seeds will be buried in the ground
without showing any action of life.

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

6. The seeds are called winged because they _______________.

a. Fly from one place to another

b. Have wings
c. Are wing shaped
d. Are carried up in the air for dispersal by the West Wind

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hour has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift and proud.

7. By the thorns of life, the poet means ________________.

 a. The thorns which come in the poets way while walking
b. The failures of life
c. Indecisive moments of life
d. The hardships, ordeals, and sorrows of life

8. The rhyming scheme of the above lines is _____.

a. abbab c. abaab
b. aabaa d. ababb

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among the mankind.
Be through my lips to unawakened earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O wind

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

9. The poetic device used in line 1 is _____?

a. a metaphor c. an alliteration
b. a repetition d. a simile

10. Spring is symbolic of ______?

a. flowers c. rationalism
b. realism d. rebirth and joy

II. Modified true or false.

________11. Ode to the West Wind is consists of four sections written in the form
of terzarima.
________12. Each section of the poem consists of five tercets and a rhyming
couplet.
________13. The Ode is written in iambic heptameter.
________14. The poet says as a young man he too was like the west wind,
because he also was wild, swift and proud.
________15. O Wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? the mood of the
poet here is pessimism.

III. Exegesis

16.20. What could be the purpose of the author for writing this poem?
 REFLECTION:

1. How are the "deaths" of the natural world and of human beings depicted
differently in this poem? To put it another way, what has Nature got that we
havent got?

The nature got that us human beings havent got is its power to renew all its
things that decaying, in other words, immortality. Because the natural world
is cyclical and always capable of a rebirth with the turning of the seasons, but
us human beings seem to just flower and fade. And also Nature is simply
stronger and powerful. Yes, we seem to be the smartest mammal and
sometimes we try to dominate nature, but we will never be able to dictate
 the direction is to take. We may be able to predict earthquakes, storm, the
weather to an extent, but we human beings will not able to stop Mother
Natures destruction. We have no control over it...we can alter the course,
but cannot dictate the end. And that has Nature got that we havent got.

2. The poet is appealing to the west wind to spread his thoughts across the
universe to usher in a new world to love, hope and optimize. As a youth in
this generation, and as a future educator, how would you do the same thing?
In what way?

We are in this modern generation where were all surrounded by modern

technologies. Technological innovation has been essential to spread
goodness. If Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote an Ode to spread his thoughts by
the help of the West Wind, me, by the help of the modern technology, I can
spread positivity by using some social sites that can access to people whos
in different part of the world. And also as a future educator, one of the most
important way to do is to become a good example or role model of the
society. Because change begins with us, and like what Mahatma Gandhi said
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

3. The poem itself ends with a question "If Winter comes, can Spring be far
behind?" (70). Well, can it? What about in a metaphorical sensecan we
assume that every kind of decay and death that we compare to the
desolation of winter will always result in a rebirth?

Yes, because life is a cycle of death and birth. If someone dies, then he also
takes a new birth. As winter (death) comes then spring (new life) is also
 there to give new birth. Similarly, sorrow in life is followed by moments of
pleasure. If theres a bad news, soon it will have followed by good news.

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^ MacEachen, Dougald B. CliffsNotes on Shelley's Poems. 29 July 2011.

^ SparkNotes Editors. "SparkNote on Shelleys Poetry". SparkNotes LLC. 2002.
(accessed July 11, 2011).

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