Shelley's Prayer to the West Wind

Author(s): Coleman O. Parsons

Source: Keats-Shelley Journal , Winter, 1962, Vol. 11 (Winter, 1962), pp. 31-37
Published by: Keats-Shelley Association of America, Inc.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/30212603

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 Shelley's Prayer to the West Wind

By COLEMAN O. PARSONS

URING A stopover at Calcutta some years ago, I visited the gemlike

Jain temple and stood at the service among a handful of ragged
worshipers. The poudjari, in a graceful white robe, inscribed airy cir-
cles with a five-branched lamp before the central image. This ritual
was prolonged hypnotically while acolytes beat drums and cymbals
until the sound quivered in ascending spirals. Incense was burned.
The "renderer of homage" turned to the lesser images with fewer
revolutions of the lamp but with undiminished clangor; then he
walked round the shrine. When maximal tension had been achieved
and Tirthankara's attention had surely been arrested through eye, ear,
and nose, a brief prayer was intoned.
Since that experience, I have been unable to dissociate Shelley's
"Ode to the West Wind" from an act of worship, beautiful, sensuous,
compelling, yet strangely ethereal. The first 42 lines of the 70 line poem
name and identify by domain and function that Wild Spirit, the great
West Wind, who is both Destroyer and Preserver. Over the surface of
restless movement glance words of rich sensuous evocation,-"azure
moss," "odors," "cold" seeds, "clarion," "to feed in air." The suppliant
does not name himself, and this section of the Ode is bound together
by the solemn invocation, repeated at the end of each of the three
stanzas, "Oh hear!" The ritual pace, the tempo, of these lines is both
breathless and controlled. The emphasis on calling the spirit is not
disproportionate, because the symmetry of the poem relates to intensity
of feeling, not to number of lines. Thus for three-fifths of its length, the
poem builds acute expectancy so that the last two stanzas may be im-
measurably enhanced in power and significance.
The fourth stanza effects a startling shift from the objective (thou)
to the subjective (I). In a quick survey of the spirit's empire over earth,
air, and water, the suppliant imaginatively identifies himself with leaf,
cloud, and wave, objects animated by the West Wind's strength. In the
strife of "prayer," he shows cause for divine action, "my sore need," and
enlists sympathy by establishing a relationship with the proud, tameless,

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 32 KEATS-SHELLEY JOURNAL

free West Wind, "One too like thee" until "c

and time.

Having accelerated the pace from his stately invocation to a cry for
help and justification for such a cry, the petitioner in the last stanza
demands that a service be rendered, the possessing of an earthbound by
a celestial spirit, "Be thou me, impetuous one!" The man is now re-
vealed as master, germinal, creative, and confident, and the spirit must
serve him by disseminating his words. His victory has come in part
through the working of a spell, "the incantation of this verse."'
Shelley's use of religious pattern and feeling is not new to readers.
To indicate the nature of their recognition, I shall quote or paraphrase
a few authorities. Kurtz says, "The inspiring deductions are here-in
the form of prayer," in which "the symbol of power and his own soul's
need are fused."2 The Shelleyan cycle of life, death, and resurrection
or regeneration discussed by Kapstein, as well as by Kurtz, is easily
traced in the invocation, confession of weakness, and renewal of the
Ode.3 Barnard identifies the Spirit of Good, of eternal Love, with the
West Wind in Shelley's hymn; in fact, "the West Wind is in a sense a
symbol of the Deity."4 White describes the Ode as "a sustained prayer
for power," as Shelley's "personal prayer that as a poet he might have
his share in producing one of the great human revolutions it was the
function of poetry to produce."5 Pottle interprets Shelley as "a pas-
sionately religious poet,"6 apocalyptic rather than revolutionary. Rog-
ers, differentiating among the stages of composition through which the
Ode gained in subtlety and force, suggests that there was initially "a
running away from..,. the need for prayer," then a substitution of the
Preserver-and-Destroyer7 for the Christian God, and a reshaping "into
the form of a prayer."8 And Bloom, using Martin Buber's terminology,

1. That the address to the West Wind Power he serves will not fail him, that it is
may be magical as well as religious is almost
sug- a command")-hereafter cited as
Barnard.
gested by the chanting, imperious rhythm
5. Newman Ivey White, Shelley (N. Y.,
of the invocation and by the phrase, "like
ghosts from an enchanter fleeing." 1940), II, 193, 280-281.
2. Benjamin P. Kurtz, The Pursuit 6.
ofFrederick A. Pottle, "The Case of
Death (New York, 1933), p. o205. Shelley," PMLA, LXVII (1952), 594-here-
after
3. I. J. Kapstein, "The Symbolism of thecited as Pottle.
Wind and the Leaves in Shelley's 'Ode7.to See S. R. Swaminathan, "Possible In-
the West Wind,' " PMLA, LI (1936), dian
1069- Influence on Shelley," Keats-Shelley
Memorial Bulletin Rome, IX (1958), 39,
o1079. In more secular terms, after conven-
tionally referring to the divisions of42. the
Swaminathan oversimplifies parallels by
Ode as five, Wilson distinguishes three
discussing only Siva, Hindu god of de-
struction and reproduction, and Brahma,
parts, movement, distintegration, and refor-
mation-Milton Wilson, Shelley's Later the creator, without mentioning Siva's con-
Poetry (New York, 1959), pp. 22, 115- sort, Kali, black goddess of death, or Vishnu,
hereafter cited as Wilson. the preserver.
4. Ellsworth Barnard, Shelley's Religion 8. Neville Rogers, Shelley at Work (Ox-
(Minneapolis, 1937), PP. 79, 258, and 302ford, 1956), p. 225.
("a prayer so passionate in its faith that the

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 SHELLEY'S PRAYER TO THE WEST WIND 33
sees the Ode as mythopoeic in "the poet's prayer to enter into I-Thou
relationship with the Spirit that is in the wind also."9
Although these explanations are helpful, we need specifically to
recall such forms and feeling in savage, Hindu, Greek, and Judaeo-
Christian belief as offer parallels to the Ode. My intention is not to
distinguish between chance similarities and possible influences but to
show how deeply rooted in human experience are Shelley's magic and
religion.
Just as savagery precedes the primitive and the civilized, so spells
precede prayer and yet may linger on in prayer. The savage is a worker
of magic and of spells; confident of his power over nature, ghosts, and
spirits, he constrains his deity. In his mesmerically chanted incantations,
he is neither humble nor beseeching. Although in time the human
agent's desire "to charge himself with a potency drawn from a quasi-
divine source"'0 may be refined into selfless communion with the
supernal, gross appetency yields very slowly to spiritual ardor.
In the magnificently colorful Vedic hymns of praise and petition, the
"wild" Maruts (Storm-Gods), "the chasers of the sky, the powerful, the
impetuous," are both "destroyers" who unleash storm and lightning
and "bounteous givers" who "placed (sowed) their own strength (the
rain), as a husband the germ." Their gifts range from health, wealth,
and victory to wisdom. "These singers of the sky" listen to prayers
("Hear the call, O Maruts!") and are "propitiated . . . by sacrifices."
"This is your kinship (with us), O Maruts, that you, immortals, in
former years have often protected the singer," who prays to you for
"luck, wisdom, inviolable and invincible strength."11 "Themselves wise
poets," they "confer power" on poets, seers, and others, who cannot
"fail," "shake," "drop," be "overpowered" or "killed" when led aright.
These hymns sometimes end with a seasonal plea: "May we have an
invigorating autumn, with quickening rain!" or "O Maruts, be pleased
with this word of mine, and let us speed by its speed over a hundred
winters!"12
9. Harold Bloom, Shelley's Mythmaking 3. Through want of strength, thou strong
(New Haven, 1959), P. 77. Bloom contrasts and bright god, have I gone wrong;
the "hopeless prayer" of the fourth stanza have mercy, almighty, have mercy!
and the "resolving prayer" of the fifth (p. Max Miller, Chips from a German
84). Workshop (London, 1867), I, 39.
1o. L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of Re- 12. Vedic Hymns, trans. Max Miiller in
ligion (London, 190o5), p. 175. The Sacred Books of the East, XXXII (Ox-
11. Compare the Shelleyan quality of ford, 1891), 63, 98, 10o6-107, 154, 20o9-211, 273,
phrasing in "Hymn to Varuna" (Rigueda, 293, 296, 313, 326-327, 34o, 344. See also Vol.
VII.89.1-3): XXXI, p. 174 (Zoroastrian reference to "the
1. Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into metric feet of zealous worship"); Vol. L, pp.
the house of clay; have mercy, al- 436-444, s. v. Prayers (Indian, Zoroastrian,
mighty, have mercyl Chinese, and Islamic); and "The Maruts" in
2. If I go along trembling, like a cloud Original Sanskrit Texts, trans. John Muir
driven by the wind; have mercy, (London, 1872), V, 147-154.
almighty, have mercyl

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34 KEATS-SHELLEY JOURNAL

The Greek pattern of prayer, as preserved in

tions, and other forms, may be presented in Fa

The longer and more formal prayers included (1)

titles of the god and perhaps mentioning the sph
alleged ground for answering the prayer-former sacri
answers to prayer by the god, or an appeal to his
proper. The reason why prayer should be answere
stance the bond which united the man and his god.

Homeric votaries may attract divine attenti

"Hear me" or my supplication, "Hear us" or o
by Glaucus ("Hear me, O king"), Phoebus Ap
cease, and staunched the black blood that flow
wound, and put might into his heart." 14
Prayer supported by kinship or other associatio
Thus Aeginetans persuaded Aeacus, son of Zeu
against the drought, "for they thought that,
with Zeus and his piety, they would most quick
relief from the woes that afflicted them."'5 O
were established in relation to nearness in plac
nection, or to "his interest in the subject of
might also be one of similar experience, as in A
(214-216):
Danaus. Next, bright Apollo, exiled once from heaven.
Leader. The exiled god will pity our exile.
Danaus. Yes, may he pity, giving grace and aid."
The winds were likewise venerated in the classical world. Sacrifices
were made to them and temples erected. On the advice of the Delphic
oracle, the Athenians successfully prayed to Boreas, god of the north
wind, for naval help at Artemisium.'s When the funeral pyre of Patro-
clus did not kindle, Achilles prayed to the North Wind and the West
Wind. Iris, wife of Zephyrus, bore the message to "the house of the
fierce-blowing West Wind," where the winds were feasting. Leaving the
13. Arthur Fairbanks, A Handbook in of [Works], ed. and trans. George Norlin and
Greek Religion (New York, g191o), p. 84- LaRue Van Hook, Loeb Classical Library
hereafter cited as Fairbanks. Bowra calls the (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1928-45 and
three parts of a normal Greek prayer In- later), III, 1 x, 13.
vocation (by titles and shrines), Sanction 16. Fairbanks, pp. 84, 87.
(credentials establishing "a claim on the 17. Trans. E. D. A. Morshead, The Com-
god's attention"), and Entreaty (for actionplete Greek Drama, ed. Oates and O'Neill
"in an urgent need").-C. M. Bowra, The(New York, 1938), I, 14.
Greek Experience (Cleveland, 1957), p. 47. 18. Herodotus, VII, 189; Lewis Campbell,
14. Homer, The Iliad, trans. A. T. Mur- Religion in Greek Literature (London,
ray (London, 1924), XVI, 514-531. 1898), pp. 145, 181-182, 186; Fairbanks, p.
15. Isocrates, Oration IX (Evagoras), + 14;155.

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 SHELLEY'S PRAYER TO THE WEST WIND 35

banquet forthwith, they hastened to Troy-land to "beat upon the

of the pyre."'9 With such compliance, no wonder that Zephyrus,
sonification of the West Wind, was worshipped in Greece and
Favonius, the spring aspect of the West Wind, was revered in Ita
Despite its energy and its occasional mingling of compulsive
with appeal, Greek prayer is civilized rather than savage or barba
Compared with Judaeo-Christian prayer, it avoids the Old Test
"outpouring of the soul," does not sink into self-abasement, and
its passion more under control. Among Christians the earliest for
tor of prayer was the Greek, Clement of Alexandria, who comb
Platonic with Christian thought and, like the Gnostics, believed
knowledge of God is virtue. Making little of confession of sins, Clem
considered communion to be the primary objective of prayer r
than supplication.
In a third century treatise, Clement's pupil, Origen, distingui
the topics of prayer as praise, thanksgiving, confession, and pet
(or intercession).21 The elements are either implicit or explicit in
restrained Lord's Prayer, either in the English version, with or with
the doxology, or its Latin form, the Roman Catholic Pater Nost
without it. In the Psalms, these components had been exuberant t
pitch of ecstasy:

Praise. I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the

gods will I sing praise unto thee.
Thanksgiving. O give thanks unto the Lord.
Confession. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did
my mother conceive me.
Petition. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgiv
all my sins.22

The Psalms are also rich in invocations:

Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. (61.1)

Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy. (86.1)

Whatever placation of the omnipotent may be attempted through

flattery, gratitude, humility, or bribery, the chief end of most prayer
is to reduce the awful distance between God's strength and man's weak-
ness. The Lord's Prayer moves toward that culmination: After (1)
19. Iliad, XXIII, 192-225. (Westminster, Md., 1954), pp. 137-139.
20. See Chapter III, "Prayer in the Re- 22. King James Version: Praise, 138.1
ligion of Greek Civilization," in Friedrich
(cf. Psalms 145-150); Thanksgiving, 136.1 (a
Heiler, Prayer, trans. Samuel McComb (Ox- formula opening also found in 105.x, 10o7.1,
ford, 1932), PP. 74-86. 118.1); Confession, 51.5 (cf. 38.5: "My
21. Origen's Treatise on Prayer, trans. wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
Eric George Jay (London, 1954), pp. 22, 216-
foolishness"); Petition, 25.18 (cf. 255: "Lead
218; Origen, Prayer, trans. John J. O'Meara
me in thy truth, and teach me").

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 36 KEATS-SHELLEY JOURNAL
naming God's abode and attributes and wishing Him w
submitting to His will because of human inadequacy, t
(3) requests help. Despite his avoidance of obvious Judaeo
terminology, Shelley is close to this pattern, and his phra
the Psalmist's in the Prayerbook version: "Thou art the
strength; why hast thou put me from thee? and why go
while the enemy oppresseth me? ... Why art thou so h
soul?"23 Shelley's confession of weakness in Stanza 4 exc
guilt, but the admission of insufficiency in the performan
task is humiliating nonetheless. The poet's apparent trium
over the West Wind in Stanza 5 may seem like a departure
tian submission, but with his final, hopeful query he sin
sivity in the willed naturalistic cycle: 24
O wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

With his rejection of sin as causative in the Ode, Shelley does not
wholly unsettle the negative-positive moral balance of the Bible,-
"Depart from evil, and do good" (Psalm 34.14); "Be not overcome of
evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12.21). For it he sub-
stitutes death and life, weakness and strength.
So far this rapid survey of prayer in the Ode and in different reli-
gions has chiefly related to objective operation on external phenomena.
In this aspect of prayer, Shelley's use resembles the savage spell in its
chant-like quality and magical allusions; Hindu and Hebrew worship
in its urgency and in fervor of imagination; classical supplication in
its control through sense of form; and Platonic and Christian feeling in
its spiritual elevation and altruism. In its sequence of approach to a
divinity or power, its presentation of a human need, and its appeal
for celestial aid, the Ode resembles all fairly complex forms of prayer.
Less significant formally but far more important psychologically is
"the subjective operation of prayer . . . on the mind and will of the
worshipper himself." Of this Tylor gives a penetrating description:

Even in savage religion [prayer is] a means of strengthening emotion, of

sustaining courage and exciting hope, while in higher faiths it becomes a
great motive power of the ethical system, controlling and enforcing, under
an ever-present sense of supernatural intercourse and aid, the emotions and
energies of moral life.25

23. Psalm 43, quoted by Pottle, p. 596: chained and bowed.' "
"Shelley's psalm employs the same vocabu- 24. Wilson, p. 299.
lary to express the same situation: '... The 25. Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,
impulse of thy strength . . . O uncon- 7th ed. (New York, 1924), II, 374. For Shel-
trollablel . . . A heavy weight of hours has ley, see Barnard, p. 30o2.

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 SHELLEY'S PRAYER TO THE WEST WIND 37

Inwardly operative prayer depends on an objective focus of wor-

ship while the celebrant is generating enough inner force to dispense
with outer stimuli. If the Ode is thought of as a self-fortifying exercise
leading to regeneration, the intense drama of magical invocation, sel
analysis, and plea for power becomes an external presentation of an
internal struggle and resolution.
In addition to its formal and psychological religious dimensions,
the Ode is a work of art which is charged with the emotional quality
of prayer and yet delicately counterpoised in structure. As a work o
art, it improves on the artistry of prayer itself by apportioning du
length to the suspense-building, ritualistic incantation, by creating
sympathy with the suppliant, and by achieving maximal dramatic an
moral involvement in the assertion of service to be rendered.
The depth, tension, and complexity of Ode to the West Wind will
continue to yield level below level of meaning. In its waters there will
always be shadowed recesses. The present study is intended as a sup-
plement to previous penetrations-literary, ideological, meteorologi-
cal, associational, and autobiographic. These analyses are not neces-
sarily in conflict with the conception of the Ode as religious experience
ascending from magic to a personal cry of anguish, to high communion
(whether internal or external), and to the farthest reaches of selfless
intercession-of good will to all mankind.
The City College
New York

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