The poem is addressed to the west wind, personifying it as both a destroyer and preserver. It describes the wind driving away dead leaves and carrying seeds to their winter beds. The wind is depicted scattering clouds and heralding an approaching storm. The poet wishes they could join the wind's wanderings over land and sea, but feels weakened by life's struggles. They offer themselves to the wind and hope its voice will spread their message, just as spring must follow winter.

1. Presented By
S. Shanmuga Priya M.A., M.Phil.,
B.Ed., (PhD)
Department Of English (S.F)
S.B.K.College
Aruppukottai
Ode to the West Wind
by: Percy Bysshe Shelley

2. Ode to the west wind
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 5
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The wingèd 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 10
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill;
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!

3. Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion, 15
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 airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 20
Of some fierce Mænad, 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, 25
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!

4. Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, 30
Lull'd by the coil of his crystàlline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers 35
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 40
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

5. 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 45
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 50
Scarce seem'd a vision—I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd 55
One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud.

6. 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, 60
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse, 65
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 70

7. Literal sense of the poem
 Ode to the West Wind is a poem that is literally
addressed to the west wind.
 It is personified both as a "Destroyer" and a
"Preserver".
 It is seen as a great power of nature that destroys
in order to create, that kills the unhealthy and the
decaying to make way for the new and the fresh.

8. Canto I
 “The poet addresses the west wind as "Wild" and the
"Breath of Autumn's Being." It is a powerful force which
drives the dead leaves which are yellow, black, pale and
hectic red, to distant places like ghosts from an enchanter.
The west wind carries winged seeds to their dark wintery
beds underground which remain there till the west winds
sister in the spring season blows and these seeds then
blossom into sweet, scented flowers. The earth then will be
alive with these living lives or colors and scents or
fragrances. In this way the west wind acts both as a
Destroyer and Preserver. “

9. Canto II
 “The Shelley describes the powerful effect of the west wind in the sky.
The west wind brakes away the "Clouds" like earth's decaying leaves
from the boughs of Heaven. After being plucked, these assume the
fierce posture of black rain and hail. These rain clouds are compared to
the outspread hair covering the sky from its horizon to its zenith. The
wildness and confusion in the sky is compared to some fierce Maenad,
the worshipper of Bacchus, the Greek God of wine. Maenad worships
god in a frenzied fashion, uplifting her hair like tangled clouds. These
indicate the approaching storm.
 The West Wind becomes a dirge (funeral song) which is being sung for
the dying year. The night becomes a vast tomb where vapour have been
built like arches and will soon come down as rain and hail”

10. Canto III
 “The west wind blows over the blue Mediterranean sea
which has been described as a vast sleepy snake, which
dreams of old civilization (palaces and towers) rich in
flowers and vegetation. The sea sees "old palaces and
towers" in sleep, which quiver when the west wind blows.
Both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic seas are affected
by the West Wind. The Atlantic's surface gets cut into
chasms to make way for the West Wind and the vegetation
below the surface trembles in fear at the force of the west
wind.”

11. Canto IV
 “The West Wind now becomes a personal force. The poet
says that if he were a dead leaf, a swift cloud, a wave, he
could experience the West Wind's power and its strength. In
his childhood, the poet had the power and strength and
could probably out speed the west wind, but now he (the
poet) no longer has the strength as he has been weakened
by the problem, and burdens of life and he is no longer
"tame less,", "swift" and "proud" as he used to be in his
childhood. He is blushing as he has fallen on the thorns of
life - meaning he is facing many problems/crisis in his life
which has drawn away all his strength and power; and he is
now looking up to the west wind, requesting him for his
help.”

12. Canto V
 “Despair and trauma which the poet is experiencing now gives way to a
new hope. Shelly offers himself to the west wind in the same way as the
sky, the ocean and the forests do. He asks the west wind to be the
musician who can take out a deep autumnal tone from him and maker
harmoniums music from him in the forest. The poet offers himself to the
west wind to be used as a "lyre" for this purpose. The music thus
produced may be sad but sweet. The poet then goes on to compare
himself to an un-extinguish fireplace with ashes and sparks - meaning
that the poet still has some un-burn power in him. He requests the west
wind to spread this power like it spreads 'ashes' and 'sparks' among
mankind.
 The poet ends with the hope that the west wind will carry the poet's
words over the entire universe and be the trumpet of his prophecy.
Winter is symbolic of despair, coldness and death; but spring gives hope
to new life, birth beauty and color. If there is despair now, hope is very
close by so the poet says - if winter comes, can spring be far behind. If
there is despair and hopelessness now, there is hope and optimism close
at hand.”

13. What is the diction
• This poem is written in iambic pentameter and use
a sort of old English dialect. I’d say the language is
formal.
• Percy stresses and un-stresses some words to make
them sound different for a loose fitting rhyme.
• He also tries to manipulate the meter so that the
actual flow of the poem stays consistent since it is
a lyric after all.

14. What are the tone and mood
• The poem as interpreted by the reader would
at first come off as down trotted lyric, but
towards the end change to an optimistic
piece of literature.
• Using darker words, the poet attempts to
portray an atmospheres that is more serious

15. Rhetorical situation
• For the first 3 cantos, Percy is speaking to the
earth, air, and ocean. The last two cantos, he
speaks directly to the wind asking it to lift him
like a leaf, cloud, and wave to make him their
companions in wandering.
• Although he is not speaking to the reader directly
his main goal is to reach the ear of the reader. He
literally wanted his message to be carried by the
west wind to those in England to give them hope.

16. Figurative language
 The first line of the poem “Wild West Wind” is an
alliteration.
 Throughout the poem the poet addresses the Wind
as a person. This is an example of an apostrophe
and a personification.
 There is a paradox in line 14 when Percy calls the
wild spirit of the wind a “destroyer and preserver”
 In lines 2 and 3 he uses a simile to compare dead
leaves to a ghost. “the leaves dead are driven like
ghost from an enchanter fleeing”

17. Imagery within the poem
• The dead leaves represent the remnants of
previous seasons that the wind clears up.
• From some of the descriptions on the poem, you
can get the image of a funeral. Dirges, corpses,
the “dying year”, sepulcher, ashes.

18. Sound
• Has a rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc ded
• The poem is arranged into 5 cantos(parts of a
poem)
• In line 14 the repetition of the phrase “Hear! O
Hear” is not only an alliteration but it puts
emphases on the fact that Percy was trying to
reach the West Wind with his voice.

19. Poem structure
• This poem is a collection of 14 line poems
composed of 4 triplets and a couplet
• It is written in stanzas and has a rhyme pattern of
aba bcb cdc ded