Percy Bysshe Shelley was a great poet of
Romantic period who wrote ‘Ode to the West Wind’ in 1819 which was published in
the following year (1820). Like other Romantics, Shelley was also impressed
much by the French Revolution which started in 1789 and concluded within a
short span of a decade. His poetry is a record of his radical and revolutionary
thoughts. Therefore, he is very popular among the lovers of English poetry.
‘Ode to the West Wind’ consists of five consecutive cantos. Each canto contains fourteen lines divided into five stanzas. Each tercet stanza (consisting of three lines) is in terza rima form (e.g., aba, bcb, cdc and ded) whereas the last one is a couplet (ee). Each line of the poem has been divided into five feet and each foot consists of two syllables with alternate weak and strong stress i.e., Iambic Pentameter.
(̩Thine azˈ)(̩ure sis̍)(̩ter of̍)(̩the Spring̍)(̩shall blowˈ)
P. B. Shelley (1792-1822) died young at the
age of 29 in a boat accident. Though he was revolutionary in his thoughts but
his poetry could not soar to heights in his days. To this effect, he wrote ‘Ode
to the West Wind’ in a symbolic version in order to illuminate the significance
and necessity of his thought-shaking ideas.
The very
title of the poem is symbolic where ‘The West Wind’ stands for the Western
ideology which Shelley attributes being wild in the opening line.
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being.”
Nevertheless,
autumn is a symbolic representation of the deformed and rotten political structure
of the West which is responsible for all deterioration in every field of life;
meaning thereby that the end role of the West Wind (Western ideology) is that
of a destructive since its being the harbinger of autumn.
Shelley tries
to infuse a new spirit of revolution through his poetry but the West Wind
harmonized with autumn treats with his revolutionary thoughts like dead leaves.
“Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.”
Resultantly,
no one is ready to listen to his voice. Then, Shelley goes to call his deep
thoughts as ‘Winged Seeds’ which struggle to fly far with a hidden motive of
producing new plants (thoughts) but the West Wind buries them deep like a
corpse and does not let them sprout.
However, if
the West Wind sings the glory of the Spring season (Symbol of Revolution), it
will fill the dreaming earth;
“(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill.”
It means
that if the French Revolution spreads through the whole Europe, it will turn
the tables. It will be only then that his poetic thoughts will be welcomed and
his poetry will soar higher and higher. Nevertheless, it’s all about the West
Wind what it chooses to i.e., either Autumn or Spring.
“Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere,
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!”
In the
second canto, the writer goes to count the effects which the West wind leaves when
it blows, hands in glove with the season of mists, over the sky. It takes its
control over the roaming clouds and ruffles them to produce heavy rain and
lightning. As a result, dark clouds appear from the horizon;
“Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad …………………….. .”
Finally, the fast-approaching clouds turn
into a terrible and terrific storm and play devastation wherever they pass
through.
In the
third canto, the poet elaborates in detail the havocs that the West wind brings
in the oceans when it blows as a herald of the autumn season. Shelley pinpoints
that it starts its journey from the Mediterranean Sea;
“Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay.”
And reaches
the great Atlantic Ocean. It moves roaring and cleaving the torrents into
chasms. The sea plants and their sticky stalks hear;
“Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!”
In the
fourth canto, the poet expresses his regret over the antagonism that the West
wind (Western ideology) poses in his way to fame. He becomes humble enough to
say that would that the West wind had accepted the worth of his mighty lines;
“If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear,
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee.”
He
complains against the mighty powers of the West wind and says that it leaves
its impact on each and everything except for his poetry. In a pathetic tone, he
implores to the West wind;
“Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud,
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”
In the
last canto, Shelley uses metaphorical language and requests the West wind to
make him its lyre (a musical instrument) and thus, blow through his poetry and
spread the message of hope and happiness throughout the world.
“Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!”
Shelley held
optimistic approach towards life. His last line serves as a maxim to give hope
to the whole world in general and the depressed West in special;
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
In a nutshell, ‘Ode to the West Wind’
shows Shelley’s skillful art of composing marvelous poetry. He has put together
symbolism, similes, metaphors and iambic meter in the composition of this
widely read poem. Its rhyme scheme adds special charm and fascination to the
overall sweetness of this poem.
Poem: 'Ode to the West Wind'
(Percy Bysshe Shelley)
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?
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