Ode to the West Wind

1
Ode to the West Wind

• By
• Percy Bysshe Shelley

2
Ode

• A complex, generally long lyric poem on a serious
  subject
• Common form used by the Romantics

3
Structure of the Ode

• 5 parts
• Each part is a sonnet
• Rhyme Scheme of each sonnet
• aba bcb cdc ded ee

4
Significant Poetic Devices

• Apostrophe
• An address to an imaginary person or entity
• Personification
• The wind is personified in this poem

5
Part I

• Imagery
• thou breath of Autumns being
• Fall
• Symbolizes death

6
Effect of the Wind in Part I

• Makes the leaves of autumn fly
• Distributes the seeds
• Life is beginning, even in death

7
Couplet

• Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere /
  Destroyer and preserver hear, O, hear!
• Asks the wind to hear his request
• What is his request?
• Answered in Part V

8
Couplet

• Destroyer and preserver
• Paradox
• The wind can both be destructive and life-giving

9
Part II

• Effect of the wind in Part II
• Pushes the clouds
• Imagery
• Thou dirge, / Of the dying year, to which this
  closing night / Will be the dome of a vast
  sepulcher
• Death Imagery

10
Part II

• Couplet
• Repeats request of the couplet in Part I
• O, hear!

11
Part III

• Effect of the wind in Part III
• Influences the sea
• Causes great waves

12
Couplet

• Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, /
  And tremble and despoil themselves O, hear!
• Repeats the request for the wind to hear him
• Diction
• Gray
• Fear
• Tremble
• Tone
• The wind is intimidating and powerful

13
Part IV

• The first part of the sonnet functions as a
  summary
• The poet asks to be a comrade of thy wanderings

14
Reason for the Request

• Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! / I fall
  upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
• The thorns of life
• William, Shelleys three-year-old son, has just
  recently died

15
Part V

• Make me thy lyre
• The speaker wants to be the instrument of the
  wind
• The speaker wants the wind to help spread his
  thoughts across the world
• Relationship with nature

16
Couplet

• The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, / If Winter
  comes, can Spring be far behind?
• Tone
• Hopeful
• The wind does bring winter (destroyer), but
  winter will always be followed by spring
  (preserver)