Ode To The West Wind by P.B. Shelley. || Text | Summary | Notes

 ODE TO THE WEST WIND
              ......P.B.Shelley....

Ode to the West Wind" is an ode, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was originally published in 1820 by Charles and Edmund Ollier in London as part of the collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems. Some have interpreted the poem as the speaker lamenting his inability to directly help those in England owing to his being in Italy. At the same time, the poem expresses the hope that its words will inspire and influence those who read or hear it. Perhaps more than anything else, Shelley wanted his message of reform and revolution spread, and the wind becomes the trope for spreading the word of change through the poet-prophet figure. Some also believe that the poem was written in response to the loss of his son, William (born to Mary Shelley) in 1819. The ensuing pain influenced Shelley. The poem allegorises the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution. At the time of composing this poem, Shelley without doubt had the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819 in mind. His other poems written at the same time—The Masque of Anarchy, Prometheus Unbound, and "England in 1819"—take up these same themes of political change, revolution, and role of the poet. (Wikipedia)



TEXT:

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 everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh 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 aëry surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, 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: oh hear!

III

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae'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 gray with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: oh 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 seem'd 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 chain'd and bow'd

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 wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

WORD NOTES:

•  Dirge - Sond of Lamentations
• Dying years- ending of the year
• Azure- Sky blue
•  Chariotest - Steer
•  lyre- A siringed musical instrument
• Cleave- Brake up
• Chasm- Deep hollows.
• Baie's Bay - Situated to the west of Naples.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the material scheme in the poem?

Terzarima

2. What type of poem is Shelley's Ode to the west wind?

Ode ( Horetion)

3. What does the west wind do to the yellow red autumnal leaves?

Makes them fly.

4. Why according to the poet west wind is a preserver?

Deposit seeds in the soil.

5. Why west wind is a trumpet of prophecy?

It brings the promisees.

6. "The locks of the approaching storm"- the figure of speech used here is?

Metaphor

7. Poet compares the young man to the west wind because...

 He too wild ,swift and proud.

8. Here thorns of life means?

Difficulties

9. Who looks like a corpse within its grave?

The winged seeds

10. Pestilence striken means...

Strom affected

11. Who is the azure sister of the west wind?

The Spring wind.

12. Ode to the west wind conveys Shelley's journey ...

From anguish to hope

13. Chariotest means?

Steer

14. " On the blue surface of thine airy surge" airy surge means...

Waves of air.

15. " Thou dirge of the dying year" here dirge means?

Lament song

16. " Thou dirge of the dying year" here dying years means..

Clossing of the year.

17. All overgrown with azure moss and flowers" - here the word azure means....

Sky blue

18. "Of some fierce meanad"- meanad means..

A frenzied woman worshipper of Bacchus.

19. "Make me thy lyre" here lyre means...

A stringed musical instrument.

20. "Hear oh hear!"- the poet here...

Invoke the west wind to hear his appeal.

21. "Cleave themselves into chasm" here the word chasm means?

Deep hollows.

22. What is Baie's Bay ?

River situated to the west of Naples.



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