ODE TO THE WEST WIND
(Percy Bysshe Shelley)
I
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 odors plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!
II
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 lightning: 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 of 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 vapors, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear!
III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled 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!
IV
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 seemed 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 chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
V
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 withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
ODE TO THE WEST WIND – questions
1. Section I
1a) What are the “pestilence-stricken multitudes”, literally? What might they be, figuratively?
(you will come back to this concept after you work through the rest of the poem)
1b) How is the wind portrayed in the first seven lines?
1c) To whom is “Spring” a sister? Discuss the contrast between the two “sisters”
1d) In what way is the wind both “destroyer and preserver”?
2. Section II
2a) Why are “Heaven” and “Ocean” tangled – how do they interact?
2b) Note how “earth’s decaying leave” echoes the imagery of section I.
2c) What are the “angels of rain and lightning”?
2d) What is likened to “bright uplifted hair”? Look up “Maenad.” What perspective does this
particular personification add?
2e) Some may say that this section contains imagery of heaven, hell and apocalypse. Discuss this.
2f) What is a sepulchre? What happens to this “sepulchre”, and why is this significant?
2g) In what way is the wind both destroyer and preserver (rejuvenator) in this section?
3. Section III
3a) “Pumice” is volcanic rock that is created when super-heated, pressurized rock is ejected from
a volcano, then cools. Discuss the significance of this in the scene that is presented here and
in light of the “destroyer/preserver” idea?
3b) Why are the palaces and towers “quivering”?
3c) How is the concept of “quivering” echoed later in the section, but in a different way?
3d) What aspect of nature submits to the wind in sections I, II and III? Make an observation
about the progression that you see there.
4. Section IV
4a) Connect the first three lines of this section to the previous sections. What are the three
different ways in which the speaker would relate to (interact with) the wind in these lines?
4b) How about the next “if” (boyhood) … how is that relationship with the wind different than
your answers from 4a? Why might it be different?
4c) So IF the speaker were … a leaf, cloud, wave etc. … what would he not have done? (key –
know what “as thus” means) What would he do (or allow) instead?
4d) Add the thoughts from this section to your answer from 3d, and discuss the significance.
4e) In what way does the speaker identify with the wind?
5. Section V
5a) How does the phrase “make me thy lyre” relate to 4c?
5b) How does this section echo section I? What, specifically is being reborn here? What
perspective do you now have of the “pestilence-stricken multitudes”?
5c) Discuss the connection between scattered ashes and the idea of destroyer/preserver,
death/rebirth.
5d) Look at “unawakened earth” in this section and “dreaming earth” in section I (also the
dreaming Mediterranean in III). Who/what is the herald of change in each of these cases?
5e) Discuss the phrases “Be thou, Spirit fierce,My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!” in light of
the whole poem.
FOR EXTRA THOUGHT:How is the rhyme scheme appropriate to the poem?
Read “The Poet” by Tennyson and connect it to this poem.