About the Author:
Percy Byssche Shelley was a Romantic poet. He was born on 04 August 1792, at Field Place, Warnham, West Sussex, England and died on 08 July 1822, at Gulf of La Sperzea, Kingdom of Sardinia. He was son to Timothy Shelley a Whig member of Parliament, and Elizabeth Pilphold the daughter of a butcher. Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind’ is a very important poem and worote this poem in a wood outside the Florence, Italy.
He was poet, dramatist, essayist and novelist and gained his education from Syon House School, Eton College, University of Oxford.
He was radical in his poetry, in his soul and in political views too. Because of his orthodox views, in Eton College students called him ‘Mad Shelley’. During his life he could not get fame. His achievements revealed after his death.
Many of the poets had a great impact of P.B. Shelley. They are Robert browning, W.B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hardy, Algernon Charles, Swinburne. An American poet Harold Bloom stated, “A superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival and surely one of the most advanced, skeptical intellects over to write a poem.”
Shelley’s life was full of problems as family crises, ill health and atheism. He exiled himself in Italy in 1818. He died in a boating accident on 08 July 1822 at the age of 29.
His second wife Marry Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus in 1818.
The poetry of William Wordsworth greatly affected Shelley. Shelley wrote an elegy Adonias on the death of John Keats. He wrote about human spirit, nature, social justice, welfare and humanity etc.
Shelley inspired some of the writers as; Robert Browning, W.B. Yeats and A.C. Swinburne.
After the death of Shelley his statue stands as memorial at University College Oxford University. Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford in 1811 but was given a memorial in Poet’s corner at Westminster Abbey.
Shelley’s married life
Shelley had two wives –
(i) Harriet Westbrook (1811): From her he had a son Lanthe Shelley. Shelley writes, “My rash and heartless union with Harriot.”
(ii) Marry Godwin (1814)
Major Works of Shelley:
- Zastrozzi: It is a Gothic novel considered to be the first and earlier work of Shelley. It was published in 1810.
- Ozymandias: It is a sonnet written by Shelley. It was published in 1811 on the issue of the Examiner of London. His friend Horace Smith also wrote a poem on the same topic with the same title.
- The Necessity of Atheism: It is an essay on atheism. It was published in 1811 when Shelley was a student at University College Oxford..
- Alaster or The Spirit of Solitude: It is considered to be one of the first poems of Shelley. It was written in 1815 and published in 1816. This name was suggested by his friend Thomas Love Peacock.
- The Revolt of Islam: This poem of Shelley was published under the title of Laon and Cythna or The Revolution of The Golden City; A Vision of The Nineteenth Century. Shelley composed this poem in the Bisham Woods in Buckinghamshire, London in 1817. This poem is based on the revolution against the despotic ruler of Ottoman Empire initiated by two inhabitants Loan and Cythna of Argolis.
- The Masque of Anarchy: It is a British Political poem. It was written in the year 1819 after the Peterloo Massacre in response to it. The theme of this poem is call for freedom and non violent resistance.
- The Cenci: It is a verse drama (tragedy). It was written in 1819 in Rome and was inspired by a Roman family and published in London in 1819. This story is based on an incident in Renaissance Rome. the Count Francesco Cenci, was notorious for his depravity announces the death of two of his sons in a party given to his guests. And he raped his daughter Beatrice. She gets help from a priest Orsino a nobleman.
- To a Skylark: It was published in the collection Prometheus Unbound in 1820. In Italy when Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley were walking through the port city of Livorno. In this poem the poet addresses the bird and praises the purity of its music.
- Prometheus Unbound: Prometheus means ‘God of Fire’. It is a lyrical drama written in Italy and concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus, who defines the gods and gives fire to humanity for which he is subjected to eternal punishment and suffering at the hands of Zeus (Thunder God in Ancient Greek religion and mythology).
- Adonais: Adonais is a pastoral elegy written on the death of John Keats. It was published in 1821.
Other Important works of Shelley:
- Julian and Maddalo
- Hellas
- Queen Mab
- When Soft Voices Die
- The Cloud
- The Triumph of Life
- Alaster: It was the autobiography of Shelley.
Ode to the West Wind Explanation
About the poem: It is an ode written by Shelley. When he visited Italy in 1818 he wrote this ode in a garden in Florance at Arno river. It was published in 1820 by Charles and Edm Oliver in London. It is the part of the collection Prometheus Unbound.
This poem is written in terza rima, five unusual and irregular stanzas. This ode is written in Iambic Pentameter.
Total lives: 70 lines
Total Stanzas: 5 stanzas (14 lines each stanza)
Rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc ded ee
Each stanza has been written in four tercets having a couplet in the ending.
Stanza – 1
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!
Explanation: The poet starts the poem addressing the west wind ‘O wild west wind’. He praises and welcomes the west wind as it is powerful. He considers the west wind a preserver and destroyer. It is deadly and dreadful. Such fatality is crucial for the rebirth . It destroys the old yellow leaves and preserves the seeds for the rebirth of trees.
In the very first line of this poem the poet calls the west wind out of human control. And it is called the breath of autumn’s being because it blows during the season of autumn.
The poet addresses the west wind directly by calling it ‘Thou’. He says that it is invisible but it has a great power in the world. It rushes through the world by making noise. The dead and colourful leaves are driven away as the ghosts are driven away fearing by an enchanter.
The poet compars the dead leaves of different to pestilence striken multitudes. As the west wind drives the dead leaves away, likewise a pestilence (epidemic) make the people run away from the contaminated area.
The west wind carries the seeds (as in a chariot) from the plants and trees to the prolific ground where they will grow again.
The first seven and a half lines are describing the west wind. The west wind is considered as the force of death and decay. The seeds are compared with the corpses. That the seeds will lie like the corpses until the spring comes. When the seeds are in the sand as in grave, then spring blows and blows its trumpet.
The earth is filled with the fragrance and colours over the plains and hills. The seeds grow and blossom into beautiful flowers. Here buds and flowers are compared to sheep or flocks.
The wild spirit has been used for wild west wind, that is omnipresent, goes to the every part of the world. It is all powerful in the world. It is destroyer as well as preserver. It can be referred to Hindu Gods as Shiva the destroyer and Vishnu the preserver.
According to the poem the destruction is necessary to rebirth or renewal. In the end of this stanza the poet asks the west wind to listen to him.
Stanza – 2
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 lightening: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery 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 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!
Explanation: The poet starts this stanza addressing the west wind. ‘Thou’ the west wind is powerful in the sky along with on the land. The wilderness of the west wind spreads the clouds are compared to the leaves. As the leaves fall from the trees, likewise the clouds fall from the tangled boughs of the heaven and emerge from the ocean.
The poet imagines that the clouds are the leaves of such a tree whose roots are in the ocean and the boughs are scattered in the sky. He metaphorically compared the clouds to the angels as they are full of rain and lightening.
He compares the clouds spread from the verge of the horizon to the zenith of the sky to the bright hair of some fierce maenad. maenad is an allusion to the greek god of wine. The clouds are expressed as the locks of the approaching storm.
In the line 23 the poet metaphorically compares the wind to a dirge; as if the west wind were sad. He says to the wind, “You are the sad song of the year.” He compares the night to the dome of vast sepulchre.
The clouds are stretched all over the sky like the roof of a dome, they support it. Black rain, fire and hails from the dome of vast sepulchre. He says to the west wind to listen to him what he is saying.
Stanza – 3
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!
Explanation: The poet starts this stanza addressing the west wind as did in the previous two stanzas. Now in this stanza the west wind affects the ocean. This stanza has been divided in two parts. In the first part the poet describes the influences of the west wind on the blue Mediterranean sea. And in the second part he describes that it is destructive in the Atlantic ocean.
When the autumn begins the west wind awakens the Mediterranean sea. The sea was being lulled by the sound of pure stream. The sea was in asleep beside an island formed by a volcanic (Pumice) rock in the bay of Baiae near Florance in Italy.
In the starting four lines of the third stanza the poet talks about the calm, tranquil Mediterranean Sea.
While the Mediterranean Sea was sleeping it saw old palaces and towers in sleep that had been ruined under the water of the bay of Baiae because of any natural calamity as earthquake or tsunami or any other calamity.
Here Shelley describes teh old palaces and towers as the symbols of past. These old palaces and towers are beautiful but sad as a lot of blue lichen and the flowers have grown on them. They are so beautiful or sweet that the sense faints picturing them. The poet calls the azure moss and the flowers very beautiful things.
The west wind enters again with all its mighty force. An incredible commotion occurs in the Atlantic ocean by the terrible force of the west wind, its level powers (waves) shake up into ditches. The vegetation under the sea in the depth without the leaves or sapless not like the plants on the earth survive feebly. They cannot bear the high fear or commotion. The waves are terribly forceful that the seawood, watery plants and other aquatic vegetation shed their leaves listening to the voice of the west wind coming. The aquatic vegetation fell their leaves off fearing of the west wind.
Upon hearing the voice of the west wind the flowers and foliage tremble and despoil themselves. In the ending of this stanza the poet says to the west wind to listen to him as he did in the previous two sections.
In the first three stanzas the speaker describes the west wind’s violent, chaotic effects on land, sea and sky.
In the upcoming fourth stanza he changes focus and starts talking about himself.
Stanza – 4
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.
Explanation: In the fourth stanza of the poem the poet starts talking about himself. He says if he were a dead leaf borne by the west wind, a cloud to be driven or an ocean wave to be driven by the west wind. He wants to be a swift cloud to fly with the west wind and sail in the whole universe. He wants to share the impulse of strength of the west wind. He does not want to be driven away by the west wind. He wants to gain some powers from the west wind.
He says that he is less free than the west wind. And actually the west wind is uncontrollable and roams freely around the universe with its powers. He wants to check the power and freedom of the powerful and destructive west wind.
The poet says if he were young and in his boyhood, he would be the comrade of the west wind and wandered over the heaven as the west wind wanders. He would run faster than the west wind does. He would outstrip the west wind’s skeiy speed.
He had freedom in his boyhood and that freedom he doesn’t have at the time of his urgent need. He becomes sad and disappointed. His days of freedom have passed. He repents over the past days. It was scarcely a vision to surpass the west wind in those days of boyhood.
The poet had never tried to ask the west wind for help. Now he is asking for the help in his urgent need. He asks for the help from the nature (the west wind) instead of God.
He asks the west wind to lift him above himself as a wave, a leaf or a cloud. This tie he has a lot of challenges and obstacles. Now he can’t win over these obstacles. He recalls the moments and bleeds and he becomes sad.
A great many of limits, responsibilities and the time have obliged him. And also they have chained and bowed him. In his boyhood days he was free and powerful like the west wind. He has no freedom that those days possessed.
He was tameless, and swift, and proud like the west wind. He had no fear or limitations. He was very swift or fast. He was proud like the west wind.
Stanza – 5
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?
Explanation: In the beginning of this stanza the poet addresses the west wind. He asks the west wind to make him his lyre (harp) as it made the forest. He considers the forest as a lyre. The lyre produces a sweet melody and the lyre is the symbol of poetry.
He says if his leaves fall like the forests’, it means he is losing his piquancy.
The west wind produces a pretty music or a deep autumnal tone that is both sweet and sad. The wind takes autumnal tone from both the poet and the forest.
He further requests the west wind to be him and he will become the west wind. He wants that the west wind should become his spirit. All he wants to become as powerful as the west wind. His desire is to take its powers. He tells the west wind to drive his dead thoughts (like the dead leaves) over the universe.
He wants the west wind to spread his dead thoughts over the universe that can generate or produce new thoughts. He says that the recitation of this poem will spread his words or thoughts among the mankind as the ashes and sparks from the unextinguished hearth do. His thoughts will spread like the fire and sparks. He says to the words spoken from his mouth.
‘Go to the unawakened earth, says the poet to the west wind, it will become blast from a trumpet of prophecy.’
Somewhat in this poem the poet wants a political or radical change. Further his hope is for the trumpet of prophecy. The poet addressing the west wind says winter has come, spring will also come and rebirth. The end of this poem is optimistic.
Other Important Poems: