Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)Ode to the West WindA man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others. The pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and Poetry strengthens the faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb. Percy Bysshe ShelleyOde to the West Wind: NotesWritten in the Autumn, 1819, and published in the following year, this poem has become one of the most popular and best-known of Shelleys verses. In a note Shelley outlined the circumstances behind the poems making: This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when the tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. Ode to the West Wind: NotesO wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns 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 oer 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! Thou on whose stream, mid the steep skys commotion, Loose clouds like earths 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 Maenad, even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zeniths 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! Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, Beside a pumice isle in Baiaes bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the waves intenser day, All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou For whose path the Atlantics 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! 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 the skyey speed Scarce seemed a vision; I would neer 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 withered 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? O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being, The West Wind is a manifestation of spiritual or supernatural energy, associated with breath, respiration and inspiration, with pneuma and anima, the Holy Ghost or Spirit, the spirit of life itself. This is important in a stanza which contains so many references and allusions to death and decay, reaffirming the energy and vitality of the west wind. Apart from the alliteration it is also worth noting the capitalisation of West Wind in the poem. In typically Romantic fashion an abstract quality or aspect of Nature is personified and addressed in the poem, such that it appears divine or god-like, or as an expression of the divineThou, from whose unseen presence the leaves deadLeaves here refer to trees and the wind-borne seeds, but the phrase also carries associations with paper (leaves from books?), the withered leaves (and dead thoughts) referred to in stanza 5, which are driven across the universe by the power of the wind. The leaves here are dead and fall to the Earth, a recurrent theme in this stanza, but there they may give rise to new life. Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,Helps build up the sense of death, and also life after death, which is brought about by Autumn, and by the west Wind. There are a number of images in this stanza which help build up this sense of death, haunting and the sepulchre, such as Pestilence, dark wintry bed, cold and low, corpse within its grave, emphasizing the West Winds quality as a harbinger of Death. Emphasizes the supernatural power of the West Wind, holding the observer spell-bound, but remaining invisible. Is the Wind here but the expression of this invisible and supernatural power, rather than the force itself? The reference to enchantment anticipates the next line and the references to the Pestilence-driven multitudes, hypnotised by the dance of Death and unable to resist its power. It is also worth noting that enchantment originally meant incantation, the singing or weaving of a spell, like the violent noise made by the wind itself.EnchanterGhostsYellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,Who chariotest to their dark wintry bedTo carry or steer, but with possible associations of transport to the Underworld. Note that in this stanza there is recurrent emphasis on the Earth, as opposed to the Air in Stanza 2 and Water/Sea in Stanza 3. See also the line like a corpse within its grave, 2 lines on.The colours of the leaves swept from the trees, but possible also a reference to the colours of the worlds races, swept away by the forces of Change and Destruction at work throughout the world, i.e. not just in Europe. The word hectic here means feverish, with its related associations of frenzy, energy and writhing, picked up in the next lines reference to Pestilence, the Plague which destroys whole communities. The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,Each like a corpse within its grave, untilThine azure sister of the Spring shall blowBorne by the air, these seeds fall to the earth and lie dormant, not dead, until awakened by the clarion call of Spring. azure refers to the clear blue of the cloudless skies of Spring, but the phrase as a whole relates to the gentle west wind of Spring, more maternal than Autumns wind. At this point in the stanza there is a distinct shift in mood, anticipating the gentler and more pastoral time of Spring, with a noticeably more dream-like, soft and gentle mood.Her clarion oer the dreaming earth, and fill(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)With living hues and odours plain and hill:i.e., the trumpet call, a traditional pastoral motif, perhaps associated with the Resurrection, but here associated with the pastoral image of the shepherdess summoning her flocks, the wind-borne seeds springing into buds. bright and cheerful after the drabness and death of WinterWild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear! The stanza ends with a final couplet which returns us to the sense of the Wind as wild and ever in motion, after the brief respite of Spring described in the previous four lines. The emphasis here on moving everywhere might suggest that the Wind, or spirit behind the wind, is continually in motion in all created nature, and not just in this one Mediterranean location, in other words, the winds of change. The Wind possesses these two attributes, coupled also with its role as Creator. In Hindu mythology the three principal gods are Siva (Destroyer), Brahma (Creator) and Vishnu (Preserver), and it is significant that Shelleys poem invokes all three gods as manifested in the one abstract force of (or within or behind) the West Wind. The phrase neatly expresses the ambivalent attitude which Shelley feels towards the Wind.Picture of Percy Bysshe ShelleyThou on whose stream, mid the steep skys commotion,Loose clouds like earths decaying leaves are shed,Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,in other words, the flow of the wind or air. This stanza is predominantly concerned with the violence and terror of air storms, and it begins with a description which expresses the powerful spectacle of fractocumulus turbulence, which bring air (Heaven) and water (Ocean) together as one powerful force. Note the use of the phrase decaying leaves, which continues on from the reference to the leaves of Stanza 1.CommotionAngels of rain and lightning: there are spreadOn the blue surface of thine airy surge,Like the bright hair uplifted from the headPossibly a reference to messengers and heralds of violent thunderstorms and waterspouts, but helping also to build up the atmosphere of supernatural energies and forces suggested later in the stanza.Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim vergeOf the horizon to the zeniths heightThe locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirgeThe Maenads were female follows of the Greek god Dionysus, the god of wine and wild revelry, who were observed to be possessed with the spirit of frenzy and excess. Here Shelley draws on the associations of this classical reference to create a vivid impression of the dancing Maenads, their hair streaming out and up into the air, likened to the water raised by the waterspouts, a further image of demonic possession. a mournful lament for the dead. Here Shelley seeks to emphasize the terrifying darkness of the storm scene, with its darkness and associations with deathMaenadOf the dying year, to which this closing nightWill be the dome of a vast sepulchre,Vaulted with all thy congregated mightOf vapours, from whose solid atmosphereBlack rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!The image here is of the darkened sky similar to a vast cathedrals interior, with the solid clouds forming the roof, and further images of death and also of the apocalypse: vast sepulchre, dying year, etc. The West WindThou who didst waken from his summer dreamsThe blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,At the beginning of this third stanza there is an apparent change of mood and tone, as the poem recalls the mood both of Summer, and of older aristocratic civilisations now buried beneath the Mediterranean waters. The connection between Summer and older political and social orders, the political implication of the poem, is that of the West Wind itself, which Shelley typifies as acting at first below the water, and now on its surface. In the first part of the stanza the emphasis, however, is on the sensuous and luxuriant, in phrases such as lulled and sleep.Beside a pumice isle in Baiaes bay,And saw in sleep old palaces and towersQuivering within the waves intenser day, An area west of Naples, a notoriously volcanic area, (hence the reference to pumice), and a former tourist resort in Roman times. In 1818 Shelley had taken a boat trip in the Bay and observed the ruins of its antique grandeur standing like rocks in its transparent sea under our boat. As the Roman town had been renowned for its luxury, immorality and even cruelty Shelley uses the image of the now underwater parts of the resort as a symbol of an older aristocratic order, overgrown with moss and flowers, and levelled by the Atlantics power: Shelley here introduces a reflection on the futility and transitoriness of human authority when set against the forces of nature, manifested in phenomenon such as volcanoes and tempests.pumice isleAll overgrown with azure moss and flowersSo sweet, the sense faints picturing them! ThouFor whose path the Atlantics level powersCleave themselves into chasms, while far belowThe sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wearThe sapless foliage of the ocean, knowThe West Wind has had its origins in the Atlantic, and Shelley suggests here the impact of the Wind as its effects reach across Europe to the Mediterranean. The political implications, in terms of waves of revolution sweeping eastwards across the continent, are clear: the Atlantics influence is a levelling one, breaking down the social divisions brought about by tyranny and injustice. Alternatively, even the Atlantic is whipped into chasms by the force of the wind, so it is inevitable that the Mediterraneans waters will do so also.Level powersA ChasmThy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!Shelley comments here The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. the vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change of the seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it. In the context of what has preceded them, these lines suggest that even the older aristocratic Roman order had to recognise the inevitability of its fall under the forces of time and of nature. Yet again the West Wind is typified as both agent and harbinger of radical and violent change. Within the stanza as a whole these closing lines radically disrupt the mood of calm and sensuality created in the first eleven lines or so.Despoil here refers to the loss of leaves. Shelleys reference to the underwater trees losing its leaves echoes the earlier references to the loss of leaves in the first two stanzas, which is picked up and drawn together in stanzas 4 and 5.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 shareAt this point there is a break in the poem, a radical shift of argument and a pulling together. Shelley likes himself, hypothetically, to a leaf, a cloud and a wave, subject to the force of the West Wind, and asks to be borne aloft with it: he may be talking about inspiration or enthusiasm, both words which are derived from the sense of being filled with air, inflated, rising above experience and age. The impulse of thy strength, only less freeThan thou, O uncontrollable! If evenI were as in my boyhood, and could beThe comrade of thy wanderings over heaven, As then, when to outstrip the skyey speed Scarce seemed a vision; I would neer have strivenThe Wind is not subject to the forces of self-regulation and the Apollonian urge to order and give form, unlike Shelley himself. He is asking, in effect, for a return to the raw power and energy he felt and knew as a child. 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 bowedOne too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:This is an important motif which runs throughout Shelleys poetry, but is most clearly articulated in his Defence of Poetry. Like Coleridge and Wordsworth before him, Shelley uses the image of that favourite romantic toy, the aeolian lyre, as a symbol of the relationship between the mind of man and the external world. For Shelley, as for Coleridge, the human mind could be likened to the strings of a lyre, which makes music when the wind (experience, outward sense impressions) blows through the strings and creates both melody and harmony. As a poet there is an obvious connection here with the concept of poetic inspiration, the ability to be moved and drawn by the spiritual rush of the spirit in the air. The West Wind in the poem does, as Stanzas 1-3 suggest, rush through the trees, drawing leaves down to the ground and making its own sound. At this point in the poem Shelley makes the direct connection with his need to be inspired by seeing the Winds force, and the impact made by the Wind on forests, creating harmonies in his own mind and verse. LyreWhat if my leaves are falling like its own!The tumult of thy mighty harmoniesWill 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 universeThe Wind, as a force of inspiration, will hopefully enable him to spread his message across the universe, both awakening the embers of Shelleys art, and also the political urgency of the message itself. The reference to withered leaves suggests how dispirited the poet is that his poetry has not yet been effective in helping to bringing about radical changes of opinion, the new birth referred to in the following line. Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth; And, by the incantation of this verse,Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearthAshes and sparks, my words among mankind!Be through my lips to unawakened earthThis phrase hearkens back to the opening lines of the poem, but in this context takes on additional associations, the attempt to bring (political and social) ideas to fruition in the dead Earth, i.e. the world is asleep to new possibilities for society and politics. The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?There is a conscious echo here back to the clarion call of stanza 1: there the call was associated with Spring, and there are similar suggestions here of the proclamation of a new era in human society, preceded by the apocalyptic energy symbolised by the West Wind. The poem ends it with a question, which might appear rhetorical, but is more probably intended to indicate Shelleys own uncertainty.The Rhyme SchemePercy Shelleys funeral