"Ode To The West Wind"-Percy Bysshe Shelly

<Chronology>

1792 born Horsham, Sussex, August 4, eldest son of Timothy Shelley.

1802-4 at Sion House Academy.

1804-10 at Eton.

1810 enters University College, Oxford.

1811 expelled for refusing to acknowledge or deny authorship of The Necessity of Atheism. Elopes with Harriet Westbrook; estranged from his father.

1812 in Ireland.

1813 Queen Mab. Daughter Ianthe born June 28.

1814 meets Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; they elope in July to Switzerland. Son Charles born to Harriet November 30.

1815 daughter born to Mary (Feb. 22) lives only a few days.

1816 "Alastor." Son William born to Mary (Jan 24). The Shelleys living in Geneva, Percy meeting Byron daily. Harriet commits suicide in November. Percy marries Mary at the end of December.

1817 loses custody of his children by Harriet. Daughter Clara born Sept. 2.

1818 The Revolt of Islam. Moves to Italy for his health. Clara dies Sept. 24. Mary completes Frankenstein.

1819 The Cenci (tragedy). June 7, son William dies.

1820 Prometheus Unbound. Family moves to Pisa. Percy meets Emiliana Vivani

1821 "Epipsychidion" and "Adonais." Lord Byron moves to Pisa.

1822 Shelley drowns (July 8) near Lerici, Italy, when his small sailboat sinks in a storm.

1824 The Witch of Atlas and The Triumph of Life published.

1839 Poetical Works.

1840 "Defence of Poetry."

<About Ode to the West Wind>

Percy Bysshe Shelley composed the terza rima poem "Ode to the West Wind" in 1819 near Florence, Italy; and it was published in 1820.

<terza rima>

Terza rima is a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d. There is no limit to the number of lines, but poems or sections of poems written in terza rima end with either a single line or couplet repeating the rhyme of the middle line of the final tercet. The two possible endings for the example above are d-e-d, e or d-e-d, e-e.

<Interpretation of the poem>

The poem Ode to the West Wind can be divided in two parts: the first three cantos, describing the wind's effects upon earth, air, and ocean, are about the qualities of the �Wind’; the fact that these three cantos belong together can visually be seen by the phrase �Oh hear!’ at the end of each of the three cantos. Whereas the last two cantos give a relation between the �Wind’ and the speaker, there is a turn at the beginning of the fourth canto; the focus is now on the speaker, or better the hearer, and what he is going to hear. The last two cantos are Shelley speaking directly to the wind, asking for its power, to lift him like a leaf, or a cloud 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.

<Translation & Analysis>

The first few lines consist of a lot of sinister elements, such as �dead leaves’. The inversion of �leaves dead’ (l. 2) in the first canto underlines the fatality by putting the word �dead’ (l. 2) at the end of the line.

The colorful context makes it easier for the reader to visualise what is going on. вЂ?Yellow’ can be seen as “the ugly hue of вЂ?pestilence-stricken’ skin; and вЂ?hectic red’, though evoking the pace of the poem itself, could also highlight the pace of death brought to multitudes.” There is also a contradiction in the colour вЂ?black’ (l. 4) and the adjective вЂ?pale’ (l. 4).

The вЂ?corpse within its grave’ (l. 8) in the next line is in contrast to the вЂ?azure sister of the Spring’ (l. 9) вЂ" which is a reference to the east wind вЂ" whose вЂ?living hues and odours plain’ (l.12) evoke a strong contrast to the colors of the fourth line of the poem that evoke death.

The last line of this canto (�Destroyer and Preserver’, l. 14) refers to the west wind. The west wind is considered the �Destroyer’ (l. 14) because it drives the last signs of life from the trees. He is also considered the �Preserver’ (l.14) for scattering the seeds which will come to life in the spring.

II

Earth’s decaying leaves’ are a reference to the second line of the first canto (�leaves dead’, l. 2). Through this reference, the landscape is recalled again.

The �clouds’ can be seen as �Angels of rain’ (l. 18). In a biblical way, they may be messengers that bring a message from heaven down to earth through rain and lightning.

Here, the west wind is 'dirge/Of the dying year’

�black rain, and fire, and hail’ (l. 28) idicates revolution

III

The question that comes up when reading the third canto at first is what the subject of the verb вЂ?saw’ (l. 33) could be. On the one hand there is the вЂ?blue Mediterranean’ (l. 30). With the вЂ?Mediterranean’ as subject of the canto, the “syntactical movement” is continued and there is no break in the fluency of the poem; it is said that вЂ?he lay, / Lull’d by the coil of this crystalline streams,/Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay, / And saw in sleep old palaces and towers’ (l. 30вЂ"33). On the other hand it is also possible that the lines of this canto refer to the вЂ?wind’ again. Then the verb that belongs to the вЂ?wind’