Name : Lidya Annisa

NIM : 140705135

Class :C

Task : III (Romanticism Period)

Romanticism Aspects Analysis in Ode to the West Wind

by P.B. Shelley

English Romantic period (±1800 - ±1850) is considered as the high light of the writing
poetry in the history of English Literature. The Europe history near and after 18th and 19th century
was overpowered by France Revolutions and its ideals about liberty, equality, and fraternity.
This point started from the beliefs about individual’s right and dignity. Bad things that attached
in human are the result from the breaking of natural wisdom by the social institutions. This
brings some philosophers to believe that human should be freed and given possibilities to rebuild
the new world which appropriate with nature. One of those philosophers was Jean-Jacques
Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a famous philosopher born in Geneva, Swiss, 28th June 1722.
He was also a great writer and composer. His writings were considered as the important matters
in the development of socialism, romanticism, totalitarianism, anti-rationalism, and a pioneer of
France Revolution that contributed the ideas of equality and modernization.

The beginning of revolution was marked by the attacking to Bastille Prison, to release the
politicians against governments. This revolution then raised the idea of liberalist in England to
do the same thing as France, but it was forbidden and only caused the shifting thoughts of people
in England. This changing influenced the social and economy of the country.
 In literature, many of the great writers also felt the change upon their world, which was
then called as the spirit of the age. Their ideas were full of revolution. Their works were full of
criticisms to collapse the government’s wickedness. They considered the civilization as the mean
of human’s bad actions, because it limited the freedom. As the city is the symbol of civilization,
the romanticism writers used the countryside into their works. Imagination was also more
dominant in their works than logic.

With the idea of France Revolution, the writers in English Romantic Period tried to make
the new world with the concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

There were many famous writers in English Romantic Period, one of them was Percy
Bysshe Shelley. A man born in Sussex, England, 4 th August 1792 was one of the major English
Romantic poets. As a poet, Shelley also rebels the conventional community institution such as
church and government. His rebellion is based on the reasons about humanity and his ambition to
build the new happy community, free from oppression, and full of fraternity so that the laws and
conventional institutions are no longer necessary. He tried to convince people trough mind and
feeling. His ambitions are conveyed in his poems, one of them is Ode to the West Wind.

Ode to the West Wind consist the romanticism aspects such as imagination, nature
interest, and individual freedom.

As explained above, one of the Romanticism aspect is the imagination interest. The poets
in English Romantic Period used their feeling as a value, and this value is based on imagination.
To express his feelings and give illustration, or give the particular atmosphere, Shelley uses
imagination in his poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’. Shelley wants to express his love to nature by
his words such as winter, spring, air, leaves, flowers, clouds, rain, fair, wave, etc. He wants to
remind the readers for not only seeing the particular things as a mere thing, but those also have
particular values. For example the ‘wind’ in the first stanza;

The first stanza of the poem he uses West Wind that can be imagined as the wind which
isn’t a usual wind, but the wind with soul that has power to destroy or preserve something. It can
also cause the death and life cycle in human or plants.
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 

Like a ghost, the wind can drive the dead leaves away. It is a sinister description of the
wind at the beginning, it only blows the dead leaves anywhere. But actually the dead leaves
carrying seeds along with them. So it means that the wind also spread those seeds anywhere with
the dead leaves. Those seeds are like the corpse in the grave, but when the spring comes, it will
wake up and grow again.

Shelley then summarizes the first stanza with the lines;

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; 

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear! 

Wild wind, which is considered as the wild spirit that moves everywhere, is the destroyer
that sweeps everything away because it gets the dead leaves off of the trees. But it also the
preserver because it helps the seeds carried by the dead leaves to grow again in the spring.

So, Shelley imagines that the wind is very valuable because it has soul that can balance
the life. Without imagination, wind is only a wind, it has no soul that could balance the life cycle.
 Second, Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind also consist the Romanticism aspect about
nature interest. This nature interest that dominate the poems in English Romantic Period is based
on the idea that nature is not only about beauty, but it can also nurture and guide our conscience,
as the source of morality. Shelley uses nature to express his feelings towards something. For
example to express his happiness, he uses spring in this poem;

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: 

Spring is always used to represent the beauty and happiness. Shelley uses the natural
objects of the spring in the poem to complete his happiness such as the buds of flowers that look
like the flocks grazing, and they look so colorful with the odors spread all over the hill.
To represent sadness feeling, Shelley also uses nature to represent it. He uses the autumn
because it always gives the illustration of unpleasant. Autumn is always dark, cold, trees without
leaves or flowers without buds, and the dead seeds due to the freezing air.

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, 

Each like a corpse within its grave, until 

In the autumn, those seeds are lying cold and low on the ground, just like the corpse in
its grave. But then the west wind spread them anywhere to wait for the spring and grow again.

Shelley also expresses hiss sadness about his life that considered as the useless life with
the natural objects such as dead leaves;

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; 

The dead leaves used to represent his useless life. Dead leaves are no longer useful for
a tree. As we all know, leaves are used to absorb the sunlight that will be used to photosynthetic
 and so on. But the dead leaves couldn’t do absorption anymore, they just wait to fall and to be
destroyed by the wind.

But, in Ode to the West Wind, Shelley also talks about hopes in a life. As the English
Romantic poets, nature is still used to describe it.

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, 

Withered leaves used as the representation of the past. If those leaves are swept by the
wind, it will quicken the new buds because they carry seeds with them. The new buds mean the
new life for the trees. It is the representation of hopes of a new better life for Shelley.

The third aspect that is found in the Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is about individual
freedom. Actually, most of the lines in this poem are about individual who seeks for freedom.
This person is so radical and full of spirit of rebellion to get the new better community.

Life of the people in English Romantic Period was so difficult. Under the George III
reign, the people were suffering due to the authoritarian king. They needed to pay the high tax
and jobless people were increasing because of the collapsing factories in the town. Lower class
people were starving, while the king and nobleman living in wealth. Their suffering was even
harder because they had no rights to utter it. Because the king’s authority was absolute, and those
who resisted it would be considered as the king’s adversaries.

In that condition, the English Romantic Period poets who believed in individual’s
dignity and rights, tried to help people expressing their suffering trough literal works. This is
based on the influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s ideas about individual’s liberty. Shelley is
one of the poets who rebels rules from the king or churches because he thinks that those rules
only limit their freedom.
 Ode to the West Wind actually tells about a man who has a difficult life and wants to
be free. His willingness to live as he wants is so powerful that he dreams to be a dead leaves,
clouds and waves so that he can live freely in bliss. These lines represent it;

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 lines tells the readers how big his willingness to live freely and happy. This is
Shelley’s way to express the sufferings of the people in that era whose life was so difficult and
full of pressure. By this poem, Shelley can express anything about people’s suffering in that era.
He is so free uttering his opinions, dreams and hopes to get the better life.

So, we can conclude that there is a close relation between Shelley’s Ode to the West
Wind with the characteristics of English Romantic Period. The use of natural objects to convey
the true meaning of the poem is so dominant here. Shelley uses those natural objects to express
ideas, prayers and hopes from a lower class person who just want to live in liberty and bliss.

This poem also describes the beauty of nature, full of imagination, and the spirit of
rebellions from Shelley’s ideas. He is so concerned with the liberty of lower class people under
the difficult situation of the period.

With his works, Shelley is considered as the pioneer of English Romantic Period.
REFERENCES;

Martha, Pardede. 2016. An Introduction to Poetry. Medan: USU Press

Samekto. 1976. Ikhtisar Sejarah Kesusastraan Inggris. Jakarta: Penerbit P.T. Gramedia

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45134

http://cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Ode.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/percy-shelley-poems/study-guide/summary-ode-to-the-west-wind

http://study.com/academy/lesson/ode-to-the-west-wind-by-shelley-analysis-and-summary.html

http://www.shmoop.com/ode-to-west-wind/west-wind-symbol.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau