Shelley, Percy Bysshe -Ode to the west wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ode to the West Wind

Shelley is a poet of the second generation because in his poem there’s not the contemplation of nature and criticism. He wants a new revolution to change existence.

In “Ode to the West Wind” the wind is the protagonist and the poet appreciates it. The energy of wind makes different the other natural elements. The energy of the wind is like the energy that changes society.

This autumn wind gives the idea of the death of nature. Thanks to wind there’s the final part of a circle and it’s necessary for the rebirth which is during the spring. It makes then ready for spring. This symbolical death represents the change of people, their regeneration. The wind as a revolutionary spirit.

We need a change. Wind is used to describe something different, it’s a personified element, it’s a wild spirit. Clouds make slow movement; push here and there in the sky. Clouds are messengers of a possible destruction. Wind creates a new existence.

Life can start again.

The author wants to be like the wind that is uncontrollable. The poet pretends to be a child to have the faculty to appreciate the wind. Boyhood is the better period of life, he pretends to be free, reconquer a sort of freedom.

He is not describing the beauty he is contemplating the strength. The poet wants to play the lyre like the wind. The question at the end is a rhetorical question. The poet wants a political, economic and moral change. Life is like the alternation of season.