Ode to the West Wind

English 9, Q3, Week 21: Literature

Ms. Karla Mae J. Silva, LPT
Class Objectives
During the discussion, the students are
expected to:

1. determine the meaning of words;

2. analyze the content and message of the
poem;
3. identify the literary devices present in the
poem; and
4. react and share personal opinion about
the ideas presented.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Author
Ode to the West Wind's
Vocabulary Bank
 tumult quivering
noise and excitement, or a shaking slightly or
state of confusion, change, trembling
or uncertainty
 hectic azure congregated
full of incessant or having the bright blue color gathered together
frantic activity of the sky on a clear day as a large group
 multitude sepulcher
large number of things a stone structure where
someone is buried
 pumice chasms foliage
a type of grey, light stone deep opening in Earth or leaves of a plant or
that is used in pieces or as rock a tree
a powder for rubbing
Please read the poem on pages 153-154.
Summary and Themes
Summary
This poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired by the
changing leaves of autumn. The poem opens with the
author addressing the westerly breeze. So, he views it as
a destructive force that must be fought. He accepts the
wind for what it is and is glad for it anyhow. The poet
sees death and decay as intrinsic to change and renewal,
and hence accepts them as inevitable.

This wind, then, will finally usher in revitalization and a

new beginning. The poet's advocacy for this renewal
through his poem is further upon in the ode to the west
wind summary. He hopes that similar changes will be
made across the world. In other words, we ought to work
towards a better future for society as a whole in both
political and lyrical ways.
Themes: Poetry and Rebirth
"Ode to the West Wind" glorifies the destructive,
chaotic power of the West Wind, which is vital for
regeneration and renewal. The speaker so
admires the West Wind that he wishes to
incorporate its strength into his poetry.

The speaker is "chained and bent." The speaker

believes the West Wind will resuscitate him. The
speaker's vision changes throughout the poem.
The wind simply becomes part of the speaker.
“Be thou me,” the speaker tells the wind.
Themes: Poetry and Rebirth
The speaker proposes more sophisticated wind-
self interactions. “Make me thy lyre, even as the
forest is,” he pleads the Wind. He aspires to be a
lyre, the instrument poets play when they
perform. This way, the speaker plays music with
the wind. Wind, not speaker, acts. (The Wind
"driv[ing] my lifeless thoughts over the universe"
reinforces these roles).
Themes: Poetry and Rebirth
The speaker wants to be the West Wind to create
something fresh and clear away the dead. The
West Wind will "quicken a fresh life" his or her
"dead thoughts" and generate something new.
The speaker doesn't specify his new idea. It could
be new poetry. Or a new society. (Many readers
see the poem as a political call). The speaker
believes that only the West Wind's cleaning
destruction can produce newness.
Other Themes: Power, Human
Limitations, Natural World

The poet is in awe of the strength and beauty of

the westerly wind, and he secretly harbors the
hope that revolutionary ideals may one day
permeate every part of the universe.
Literary Devices
 Alliteration
The use of alliteration involves repeating a consonant
sound inside the same line, such as the sound of "w" in
the phrase "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's
being" or the sound of "g" in the phrase "Thy voice, and
suddenly grow gray with fear."

Simile
It is a figure of speech in which one item or person is
compared to another thing or person. For example, “Are
driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing”; “Each like
a corpse within its grave”; “Loose clouds like earth’s
decaying leaves are shed”.
 Symbolism
The practice of utilizing symbols to symbolize abstract concepts and
attributes by imbuing those symbols with symbolic meanings distinct
from their literal interpretations is known as symbolism. "West
wind," "dead leaves," and "dying year" are all metaphors for the
destructive forces of nature, while "dying year" refers to the passing
of the season.

Imagery
Imagery helps readers see. “Dark wintery bed,” “yellow, black,
pale and frenetic red,” and “Angles of rain and lightning” are
instances of visual imagery. “The trumpet of a prophecy,” “Black
rain and fire and hail shall burst,” and “Her clarion” are auditory
imagery. Kinetic images includes “Wild Spirit, which art moving
everywhere” and “Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks”.
 Personification
One definition of personification is the attribution of human
characteristics to things that are not actually alive. As though the
wind were human, we give it names like "Destroyer and Preserver,"
"Who chariotest," "Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams,"
"The blue Mediterranean, where he lay," and "thou breath of
Autumn's being."

Anastrophe
It refers to the reversal of the syntactically correct order of
subjects, verbs, and objects in a sentence. In the second line,
Shelley uses anastrophe by writing "leaves dead" instead of
actual dead leaves.
 Enjambment
When a sentence or clause continues onto the next line
instead of ending at a line break, it is said to be indented.

“Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know.”
Form and Rhyme Scheme
 Form
"Ode to the West Wind" is a Greek-style ode. The ode has utilized no
meter or rhyme scheme throughout languages, civilizations, and
poetry traditions. Poets write odes in their own styles. Dante's
depiction of Hell in the Inferno inspired Shelley's terza rima ode.

Shelley also writes his terza rima portions as sonnets, a form

popularized by William Shakespeare and Thomas Wyatt. Each poem
segment is a sonnet. Shelley's sonnets don't rhyme like
Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnets, two of the most popular
styles of sonnets.

This poem's odd sonnets subtly acknowledge the sonnet's

prominence in English poetry. Like Edmund Spencer's Amoretti or Sir
Phillip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, "Ode to the West Wind" is a
small sonnet sequence. Older writers wrote sonnets about doomed
lovers. Shelley modernizes this by showing a speaker praising the
west wind.
 Rhyme Scheme
"Ode to the West Wind" is terza rima. Interlocking rhymes
characterize terza rima. Terza rima poems' initial stanzas
rhyme ABA. The next stanza adds BCB to the B rhyme.
CDC, DED, repeat. A poet can write any number of terza
rima stanzas. Terza rima's last two lines always rhyme, EE.
This concluding couplet punctuates the poem or section.
This poem's sections rhyme as follows:

ABCDEDEE
 Rhyme Scheme
"Ode to the West Wind" has odd rhymes, like its meter. In
the poem's opening half, "thou" and "low" rhyme in lines 5
and 7, and "everywhere" and "hear" rhyme in lines 13-14.
The poem's strained rhymes portray the wind's ferocity
and chaos. The violent wind has skewed the poem's meter
and rhymes.

Italian-born terza rima. It was developed in the Middle

Ages and popularized by Dante in his epic poem The Divine
Comedy, which follows the author through Hell, Purgatory,
and Heaven. Many readers associate terza rima with
Dante. Thus, it's connected with forceful, ambitious poetry.
The rhyme scheme suggests that the speaker is leading the
reader on an epic journey like The Divine Comedy.
Literary and Historical
Context
 Literary Context
Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Late 18th-century Romanticism
(around, say, 1780). It reacted to 1700s intellectual and literary
tendencies. Voltaire and Diderot emphasized reason, rationality, and
science. They considered anything unscientific and backward
primitive. These thinkers shaped poetry. Poets cleaned their poems
of irrationality and chaos.

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, early Romantic

writers, felt repressed by this stress on reason and rationality. They
wrote poetry that explored the dark undercurrents of the human
mind to release the irrational. Shelley, born after Romanticism,
followed their lead. He and his peers—John Keats and Lord Byron—
felt that Wordsworth had compromised the movement they
launched by becoming too conservative as they matured. He wanted
Romanticism to be revolutionary again.
 Literary Context
Shelley also drew from Greek philosophy and poetry. In "Ode to the
West Wind," he adapts the ancient Greek ode. Pindar wrote odes
celebrating Olympic triumphs. In this tradition, odes honor strong
humans or gods. Such odes are conservative poems that glorify
society as it is because of their affiliation with powerful people.

Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is an intricate, complex ode. It hails

the west wind and asks if the poet can share its devastating power.
The west wind is not a monarch or Olympic athlete. The speaker
appreciates a weather feature.

Shelley's sonnet about nature doesn't exclude politics. Shelley thinks

his poem would encourage social transformation, which many
readers see in the poem's ending.

 Historical Context
1819's "Ode to the West Wind" Its creator, Percy Shelley, held
numerous extreme political views at the time, including abolition of
slavery, non-violent protest, and Irish independence from England.

Political radicals struggled in 1819. By 1814, Louis XVIII, the King of

France, had been reinstated, dispelling Wordsworth's democratic
idealism. After all the carnage and energy of the revolution,
monarchy returned.

As the Victorian Era approached, England became more

conservative. Thus, in 1819, Shelley may have felt like the world was
drifting backward, away from his desired course. In “Ode to the West
Wind,” the speaker feels defeated and believes that only society's
disintegration may lead to anything better.
 Asynchronous Activity
For your self-paced or asynchronous activity,
create a literary analysis of the poem "A Thing of
Beauty" on page 156. Be guided by the
instructions and rubric that will be uploaded in
our Google classroom.
Food for Thought
Thank You