Pdf version of lecture notes for the Ode by Shelley. Simple and unsofisticated - quick to use with no animations

1. Ode - a “rhymed lyric”
- in the form of an address
- dignified in subject, feeling and style
- elaborately structured poem
- musicality (repetition,alliteration; rhetorical device)
- divided into five stanzas
- each is sonnet, made up of 14 lines
- all stanzas have same rhyme scheme :
aba bcb cdc ded ee

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-
1822)
- highly imaginative
- intellectually active -
- strong presence in his works
The Cenci (poetic drama)
Ode to Liberty
Adonis
To a Skylark
Ozymandias

4. The poem
Introduction-
“Ode to the West Wind”
• conceives a world as seen in a
forest at the edge of wild,
boisterous waters
• the stormy West wind was
collecting the vapors of the
Autumnal rains
• The poet imagines an ideal
dialogue with the Natural
elements: The wind (personification)

5. Summary
• activities of the WW on the land are described.
• The WW drives the dead leaves of various colours –
yellow, black, pale and red-
• scatters the winged seeds far and wide
• buries leaves and seeds under the earth - like dead
bodies in their graves, until spring
• Then they sprout and bear flowers to fill the valley
with sweet fragrance
• The WW depicted as
destroyer (of dead leaves)
preserver (of seeds buried under ground)

6. 1. west wind active in the air
2. carries loose clouds as the dead leaves
3. clouds floating with the WW are messengers
of rain and lightning (symbolism –
quench,regeneration,activity,turbulence from whence new life comes forth)
4. the approaching storm – civil awareness
5. The stanza also describes WW as the
harbinger of the end - song of the dying year, a new era preannounced
6. stanza illustrates the abstract qualities of
Shelley’s poetry.

7. • WW in action on water
• awakens the blue Mediterranean from a long
torpor/sleep – inaction as in a dream - of ruined palaces and towers
(now submerged in water), once they stood majestically on its shores.
• On those ruins – marine vegetation, moss and plants with flowers
now growing
• The WW blows over the Atlantic in such a
fury(rebelling spirit)
• rising waves give way to the mighty “Wind”
so the vegetation on the bottom of the ocean
trembles with fear and is uprooted

8. After describing the effects of WW on the earth, sky and sea,
1. the poet turns to himself and identifies his own
personality(role) with that of the West Wind
2. recalling his swift, energetic, and
uncontrollable childhood (innocence to perceive more profoundly
the state of matters as they truly are)
3. the poet feels like the WW and could
accompany it on its wandering over the sky

9. 4. But adversities of life have crushed him (defeat of intent)
5. He is bleeding on the thorns of life
(Christ figure of salvation/sacrifice for the new order/beliefs)
6. Poet needs inspiration from WW for support
7. Powerless and helpless, he desperately appeals to
WW to uplift him
(elevation to a new perceptive consciousness which he will share with the world)

10. • The poet appeals to WW to make him his acolyte
- a lyre and blow/sing through him like it blows
on the forest
• Like the forest, he sees the autumn of our era
• He entreats WW to become one with him and to
scatter his thoughts over the world to be the
harbinger of new period in human history
• The present miserable condition must give place
to a happier and brighter new order
• The last line of the poem is a clear expression of
Shelley's idealism - belief in the perfectibility of human nature.

12. SYMBOLISM
The poem has several symbolic layers of meaning-
• The west wind is symbolic of destruction (of the
old order) and preservation (of new one).Thus a
symbol of change/renewal.
• dead leaves and seeds – all material things are
subject to change – as is the hope for a new world order
• The west wind also embodies the poet himself.
• West wind a symbol of the powerful influence
and forces that will announce the new order of
mankind.

13. Similes and Metaphors
STANZA - I
• Metaphors:
(1) Breath of autumn’s being
(2) the winged seeds
(3) destroyer and preserver
• Similes:
(1) Like ghost from enchanter
(2) each like corpse
STANZA - II
• Metaphors:
(1) Angels of rains and lightning
(2) some fierce Maenad
(3) dome of a vast sepulture
• Similes:
(1) clouds like earth’s decaying leaves
(2) like the bright hair uplifted

14. STANZA - III
• Metaphors:
(1) the coil of his crystalline streams
(2) Atlantic level powers
• Similes:
(1) Like ghost from enchanter
(2) each like corpse
STANZA - IV
• Metaphors:
(1) thorns of life
(2) The comrade of thy wandering
STANZA - V
• Metaphors:
(1) the trumpet of prophecy
(2) winter
(3) spring
• Similes:
(1) as from an unextinguished hearth ashes and sparks.