Name：段曦Class：英语0901 Number：08
On the Image of Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”
As the most famous representative of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s thoughts and feelings, “ode to the west wind” sets up strong and powerful image of the west wind as the destroyer and the preserver, showing the poet’s critical attitude towards the ugly social reality of his days and his faith in a bright future for humanity.
●Part 1 (stanza 1~3) The effects of the west wind
The first stanza begins with the alliteration (“wild West Wind”) which indicates that the wind is vigorous and powerful. The “Wild Spirit”is both“the Destroyer”and“the Preserver”. This autumnal wind is personified as human being (“breath of autumn’s being”), because only our humans have the revolutionary power to destroy the old society which is symbolized by “the leaves dead”and create a new world symbolized by “the winged seeds”.
The second stanza describes the wind’s activity on the clouds in the sky. The “clouds” are “Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean” by the influence of the wind, getting together with the “black rain and fire and hail”, which probably heralds a revolutionary storm to ruin the corruptive old things.
The third stanza focuses on the tremendous force of the wind on the waves. “The blue Mediterranean” symbolizes the rulers who were being lulled into a false sense of security in the 19th century by “his chrystalline streams”and “azure moss and flowers”. All this looks peaceful, but suddenly the peaceful waves are shaken by the west wind and ultimately are cleaved into the powerful tides (“the Atlantic’s level powers”).
●Part 2 (stanza 4~5) The poet’s eagerness and optimistic belief
In the fourth stanza, the first three sentences are in subjunctive mood. The poet applies the subjunctive to feel the power influenced by the wind (“share the impulse of thy strength”), to be free like the wind (“wandering over Heaven”), and to show his eagerness to enjoy the boundless uncontrollable spirit of the wind (“like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud”). The word “comrade”implies that the poet want to be a companion of the west wind to overcome the difficulties of life (“the thorns of life”).
The last stanza is the climax of the poem. Shelley compares his poem to “incantation”, and he wants to be lyre to play his words by which his curse and criticism to the society’s darkness and viciousness can be expressed completely. He wishes the wind to scatter his words among mankind (“Be through my lips to unawakened Earth”). At this point, Shelley also indicates the west wind’s power of transmitting the great
revolutionary thoughts. The wind plays “the trumpet of a prophecy”, which represents the inexorable success of the revolution. The last sentence is the sublimation of the poem, and it embodies the poet’s optimistic belief in the future of mankind.
The whole poem is utilized by the figure of speech of imagery, appearing to the people who are asleep to struggle with their rights and happiness. The poem is a lyric poetry about revolution, but it hasn’t a revolutionary slogan or a political term, and all of the slogans are symbolized in different natural things, which is the bright point of this masterpiece we should study carefully.。