Figures of Speech used in Ode to the West Wind

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Ode to the West Wind poem was written by P.B. Shelley. Figures of Speech increase the importance and beauty of the poem. Here are some figures of speech used in this poem. They are important for your exam point of view.

Stanza 1 (Figures of Speech/Poetic Devices)

  1. O wild west wind – Apostrophe, alliteration
  2. Breath of Autumn’s being – Metaphor, alliteration
  3. Thou breath, Thou, from – Anaphora
  4. Leaves dead – Spondee, personification
  5. Are driven like ghosts – Simile
  6. Dark wintry bed – Metaphor
  7. Pestilence striken -Metaphor
  8. Winged seeds – Metaphor
  9. Dreaming earth – Metaphor, personification
  10. Buds like flocks – Simile
  11. Everywhere, hear – Slant rhyme
  12. Comparison of seeds to a corpse winged seeds, like a corpse – Simile
  13. Azure sister – Transfer epithet
  14. Pestilence striken, multitudes – Alliteration
  15. Sister of the spring – Alliteration
  16. Flocks to feed – Alliteration
  17. Wild spirit which – Alliteration
  18. Destroyer and preserver – Paradox

Stanza 2 (Figures of Speech/Poetic Devices)

  1. Stream, mid the steep sky’s – Alliteration
  2. Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves – Alliteration, simile
  3. Clouds like the bright hair – Simile, metaphor
  4. Angels of rain and lightening – Metaphor
  5. Clouds the locks of the approaching storm – Metaphor
  6. West wind becomes the dirge of the dying year – Metaphor
  7. Closing night is compare with the dome – Metaphor

Stanza 3 (Figures of Speech/Poetic Devices)

  1. Waken the blue Mediterranean Sea – Personification
  2. Atlantic ocean – Personification
  3. Sapless foliage – Personification
  4. Grow gray – Alliteration

Stanza 4 (Figures of Speech/Poetic Devices)

  1. Dead leaf – Personification
  2. I were a swift cloud – Personification
  3. A wave to pant beneath – Personification
  4. Pant, power – Alliteration
  5. Skiey speed – Alliteration
  6. Scarce, seemed, striven – Alliteration
  7. Thorns of life – Metaphor
  8. A heavy weight of hours – Metaphor

Stanza 5 (Figures of Speech/Poetic Devices)

  1. Make me thy lyre – Alliteration
  2. As the forest – Simile
  3. Poet and forest are lyre – Metaphor
  4. Poet’s voice as trumpet of prophecy – Simile, Metaphor
  5. The tumult of thy mighty harmonies – Alliteration
  6. Sweet though in sadness – Alliteration
  7. Drive my dead thoughts – Alliteration
  8. Words compared as ashes and sparks – Simile

Ode to the West Wind Poem Explanation

 

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