ODE TO THE WEST WIND

Ode to the west wind it’s an extended metaphor to others it’s actually all about regeneration.
Whether it’s about the power of the west wind to destroy the old leaves and preserve the new
seeds, there is an undeniable sense this poem is about changing the order of things. It’s about
reflecting on the glories, power and dominance of nature, and is extended metaphor in many
ways could represent the frustration that Shelley felt at the tyranny the politicised tyranny of
Christianity on the western world that he’d encountered, but he writes his poem in 1820, not long
after his son William has died. This poem is split into 5 cantos, each containing 5 stanzas,
following the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED EE.

I STANZA

Shelley is addressing the west wind, he’s talking to the west wind. First he says it is wild, then he
says it is the breath of autumn, and he says it’s an unseen presence. He goes on, talking about
what the west wind does. The west wind drives away the dead leaves, it carries the seeds to their
beds, where they will wait, like a corpse, until the spring, and he says that the west wind is a
sister to the spring wind. He then goes back to the qualities of the west wind itself, calling it
again wild, a wild spirit: he says it is moving everywhere and he calls it both destroyer and
preserver.

In the first part, Shelley speaks not only of the autumn wind, but of the spring wind which also
comes from the west. So this is the reason why he calls the west wind both destroyed and
preserver, carrying off the dead leaves in the autumn, and sweeping the seeds to their resting
place in the winter, until the west wind of the spring wakens them into life.

II STANZA

In the second canto, Shelley focuses on the qualities of the west wind. He describes the natural
phenomena, the steep sky, the loose cloud, decaying leaves, tangled boughs, rain and lightning,
the approaching storm, black rain, and fire and hail. None of this imagery is very comforting: it all
suggests something wild and uncontrolled, reinforced with words denoting power. The wind
causes commotion, there are angels of rain and lightning, suggesting a sort of heavenly power.
nad, even from the dim verge re zenith's height, proaching storm. There is the airy surge and the
fierce Maenad, the wild woman, or one of the wild women of Grecian times. There is the
congregated might of the west wind, and the black rain, and fire, and hail will burst out into the
atmosphere. So there is this sense of power that we get here, and that wild and violent power is
associated, above all, with death. The leaves are decaying, the sound of the wind is a dirge, the
year is dying, and there is the sepulchre of the closing night.

The second canto of Shelly’s ode focuses on the sky, particularly on clouds, personified as
angels, and Maenads, at once evanescent vapours and solid atmosphere, from which rain, and
hail, and fire burst forth. Symbolically, the wind can be linked to the spirit of revolution: a
destructive, and dangerous but necessary force for change.

III CANTO

In this third canto, Shelley focuses on the sea and the effect that the west wind has on the sea. It
wakens the Mediterranean from summer, and he spend a few lines describing summer: summer
is a time of dreams, the sea is lulled, and sleeps, and everything is overgrown, and sweet. Then
he returns to his theme of the west wind, which wakens the sea from this sleep of summer,
churning the waves of the Atlantic into chasms and even making underwater vegetation grow
grey with fear.

Shelley told us that the west wind is wild, that it is powerful, and that it is fearful. He shown us/
has spoken of how the west wind exerts its power over leaves, seeds, clouds and waves. Three
times he has called on the west wind to hear him.

IV CANTO

In the first three cantos, Shelley summons up the west wind calls on it to hear him. Now, finally
he tells the wind what it is that he wants to say. He wants the wind to hear him to carry him like a
leaf. Hw wants to fly with the wind like a cloud, and he wants to be under the power of the wind,
just like a wave. He emphasises again the power and strength of the wind. The wildness is
suggested through the word “uncontrollable”. He remembers his childhood when he thought of
the wind as his friend or companion, and even thought, as a child, that he could go faster than
the wind. If he were a leaf, a wave, or a cloud, or even if he could be as he was a child, when he
was a boy, he would not be praying to the wind like this, but the reality is that he needs the wind
to lift him up, because he falls among the thorns of life. He bleeds, he is suffering, he sees
himself as being like the wind, in his essential nature, “tameless, and swift, and proud”, but life
has dragged him down: he is “chain’d” and “bowed” by the “heavy weight of hours”, and by the
pressures of life.

In the fourth canto the is the sense of conflict going on within the poet himself: a conflict
reflected in apparent inconsistency and internal contradiction. On the one hand, Shelley seeks to
place himself under the power of the wind, like a leaf or a cloud or a wave. On the other hand, he
sees himself as a being like the wind itself, untameable and proud, and even as being in
competition with it, striving with it in prayer. Underlying these conflicting feelings towards the
wind is Shelley’s description of himself as “falling on the thorns of life” and bleeding. The wind
makes things rise up, and Shelley calls on the wind in that he too wishes to rise, and free himself
from those thorns.
V CANTO

In this final canto, the interplay of poet power and wind is followed through to its conclusion.
Firstly, we see that behind the apparent confusion and disorder - the tumult of the autumn wind -
there lie “mighty harmonies”. Here is a sweetness behind the sadness of the dying year. The
onset of winter is a necessary precondition for the arrival of spring. Shelley goes into more detail
here of exactly what it is that he wants from the wind. He wants to be an instrument, played on
by the wind. He wants the spirit of the wind to be his spirit. He wants the wind to be him. He
wants the wind to scatter this words that is his poetry, among mankind.

One of the things that Shelley deeply believed in, was the power of poetry to change the world.
Trough poetry, he believed people could develop their empathy, and understanding of others and
so make the world a better place. In that sense, writing poetry was for Shelley a revolutionary
act. In this final canto, the wind is called upon to scatter the poet’s words among mankind. The
apparent tumult or disorder of the wind is part of a greater harmony. The sadness of the dying
year is a necessary prelude to the new year. There can be no spring, without winter. In this way,
the apparent contradictions are, to some extent, resolved. Shelley seeks, non to be the wind, but
for the wind to be him, to raise him up and scatter his words.