Ode to the West Wind

Ode to the west wind is the most famous lyric poem written by English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelle in 1819, the poem used various rhetoric methods, the poet made the scene and his feeling melt together. Some have interpreted the poem as the speaker lamenting that he was unable 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. Some also believe that the poem is due to the loss of his son, William in 1819. Another son Charles died in 1826, after Ode to the West Wind was written and published. The ensuing pain influenced Shelley. No matter what inspired this brilliant poet, this ode represents the highest level of work for Shelley.

The poem has five stanzas, In every stanza, the first twelve lines use the form of terza rima and the last two lines make up a couplet. Each stanza rhyme arrangement is aba，bcb, cdc, ded, ee. According to its content, in fact, it can be easily divided into three levels. The first, second, third stanzas make up the first level, the last two stanzas each for a level. The first level is developed from the earth, the sky, the ocean, which lead to the shifter, days turned and the tsunami and show a common image of old things. The huge destruction of west wind leaves a deep impress on readers. What’s more, the role as “protector” is more impressive. Its coming can bring a new scene, and all the old things will be gone.

The biggest feature of this lyric poem is that it delicately makes use of symbolic meanings. For example, the main symbol “west wind” stands for the moral and the spirit, and it can give people power. Moreover, in first stanza, “the leaves dead” stand for British reactionary chasses, “Pestilence-stricken multitudes” shows us the force and state of the classes. In second stanza, “Thou dirge of the dying year to which this closing night will be the dome of a vast sepulcher”, which stand for the decaying of the old forces. In the third stanza, the poet switches his attention to the blue Mediterranean, which presents a quiet, easeful circumstance standing for the peaceful life of the ruling class. Almost every stanza uses the meaning of symbols. The descriptions of these objects or sceneries look like common things in daily life, but when they are infused with the writer’s feelings and wishes, they are impressive and meaningful.

Apart from symbols, there are also many other rhetoric methods in this ode. At the beginning of the first stanza, the poet uses the personification, giving the west wind the image of a person, such as “breath; presence; driven”, next he uses simile “like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing”, here it is the “enchanter” that has the magic. Later, he uses metaphor “thine azure sister of the spring”, showing the power of west wind of spring which brings life to the earth. The west wind becomes wild spirit, which are both destroyer and preserver. The west wind blows the desperate scene, at the same time, it brings the hope. From “The

winged seeds” “Her clarion” it gives seeds the wing, on one hand, the poet is presenting the strength of the wind; on the other hand it emphasizes the poet’s hope, passion and optimistic will towards the revolution. Finally, “Wild Spirit” and “Destroyer and preserver”, the poet points out the main thought. In the following stanzas, Shelley melts several diverse rhetoric devices and makes the ode more vivid and attractive.

In addition to the rich rhetoric devises mentioned above, the last most famous sentence also contributes a lot to the widespread popularity of this poem. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Shelly shows the optimistic attitude towards difficulties in life, as well as in revolution movements. Shelley sees winter not just as the last season of vegetation but as the last phase of life. Shelley observes the changing of the weather from autumn to winter and its effects on the environment. Shelley is trying to show that a man’s ideas can spread and live on beyond his lifetime by having the wind carry his “dead thoughts” which through destruction, will lead to a rebirth in the imagination, and in the natural world.

Clearly, the whole poem revolves around the “west wind”. It never uses any political term and revolution slogan. But after reading, we can still know it emphasizes on revolution more than nature storm. In the early 19th century, the whole Europe was still enveloped in the dark of feudalism. “Ode to the West Wind” was not only the song of autumn, but also the sound of era. The thematic implication is also significant: whereas the older generation of Romantic poets viewed nature as a source of truth and authentic experience, the younger generation largely viewed nature as a source of beauty and aesthetic experience. In this poem, Shelley explicitly links nature with art by finding powerful natural metaphors with which to express his ideas about the power, quality, and ultimate effect of aesthetic expression.

第二篇：Ode to the West Wind English

Ode to the West Wind

Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819. Shelley was one of the 3 representatives of the active romanticist poets，which was the first poet in Europe who sang for the working class. He had intense love for the people and bitter hated for their oppressors & exploiters. He called on the people to overthrow the rule of tyranny and injustice and prophesied a happy and free future for mankind.

The poem of Ode to the West Wind consists of five stanzas of fourteen lines each，which is written in terza rima）. Each stanza has four tercets and a closing couplet. In poetry,a tercet is a unit of 3 lines that uaually contains end rhyme (ABA, BCB, CDC,

DED);a couplet is a two-line unit that uauslly contains end rhyme (EE).. Shelley wrote the tercets in a verse form called terza rima. The Ode is written in iambic pentameter.The

keynote in the poem is Shelley?s ever-present wish for himself and his fellowmen to share the freedom of the west wind .The dominant mood here is that of hope.

The poem begins with three stanzas describing the wind's effects upon earth, air, and ocean. The last two cantos 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 Ode to the West Wind can be divided in two parts: the first three cantos are about the qualities of the ?Wind? and end each with the invocation ?Oh hear!?. The last two cantos give a relation between the ?Wind? and the speaker.

The first stanza begins with the alliteration ?wild West Wind?。 The first section is fairly straightforward with constant references to death, corpses and destruction that Shelly

uses as a metaphor for autumn. The allusion to disease and darkness describes the West Wind in this first section. In the last line of this stanza the west wind is considered the ?Destroyer? because it drives the last signs of life from the trees, and the ?Preserver? for scattering the seeds which will come to life in the spring.

In the second section Shelly takes a more lofty perspective in the beginning

mentioning ?heaven? and ?angels? and then moves to give a depiction of hell in the last line of the section with “black rain,and fire,and hail will burst”. To be a little more precise, the second section is one comparing an oncoming storm to the end of a year. Perhaps Shelly feels that the next year will not be as good as the last and one can even speculate that the west winds are the winds of change or even of evil.

The third section really supports the theory that Shelly did portray the west wind as the bringer of evil.” Palaces and towers” symbolize monarchical government.The wind is described to be awakened from a place of peace and beauty. From what is known of the ?wind? from the last two stanzas, it became clear that the ?wind? is something that plays the role of a Creator. Whether the wind creates real things or illusions does not seem to be that important. The west wind is power.

Whereas the stanzas one to three began with ?O wild West Wind? and ?Thou...? and were clearly directed to the wind, there is a change in the fourth stanza. The focus is no more on the ?wind?, but on the speaker who says ?If I...?. Until this part, the poem has

appeared very anonymous and was only concentrated on the ?wind? and its forces so that the author of the poem was more or less forgotten..The fourth section plays on the feeling that this wind is all-powerful and Shelly seems to give the impression of bowing down before it. One more thing that should mention is that this stanza sounds like a kind of prayer or confession of the poet. This confession does not address God and therefore sounds very impersonal.

The final section seems to come to terms with the west wind. the most powerful call to the Wind are the lines: "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe/Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!" Here Shelley is imploring,or really chanting to the Wind to blow away all of his useless thoughts so that he can be a vessel for the Wind and, as a result, awaken the Earth.

The poem expresses the hope that its words will inspire and influence those who read or hear it. In the poem the poet describes vividly the activities of the West Wind on the earth, in the sky and on the sea, and then expresses his envy for the boundless freedom of the West Wind and his wish to be free like the wind and 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. The poem allegorises the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution. The celebrated final line of the poem, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” illustrated Shelley?s optimistic belief in the future of mankind.