Ode to the west wind

ODE TO THE WEST WIND, BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

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SUMMARY OF THE POEM

➽Ode to the West Wind is a successful ode having all the features of it.In this poem, Shelley expresses his close contact with Nature. Formally there are 5 stanzas in the poem. It is an ode of regular type. Each stanza has 14 lines following a rhyme scheme which is called the''Terza-Rima''.The first line rhymes with the third and second line with the fourth.

Shelley addresses the west wind as the spirit of autumn.It is called the destroyer because it drives away the decayed or the rotten leaves from the trees.It is also called the preserver because it  drives away the seeds underground throughout the winter. At the advent of the spring the seeds put on new leaves and beauty.⤑

      ‘’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…….’’

The poet refers ‘ghosts’to compare the dead leaves.The west wind acts like an exorcist.Being afraid of the exorcist ghosts flee away from him.Similarly dead leaves being afraid of west wind run away as soon as it approaches.

The west wind has also activity in the sky.There it drives away the loose clouds like rotten leaves.These clouds are cause of rain or storm.The whistling of the west wind seems to be the funeral song of dying year.The dead year would be received in the thick vapor of stormy clouds.⤏

          ‘’Of some fiece Maenad, 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,………..might……’’

  Maenad, according to Greek mythology, is the frenzied woman worshiper of Bacchus, the wine-god.These female worshipers went on drinking,dancing,singing and killing animals in honour of God.When the west wind blows violently,it produces a wild commotion and storm just as Maenads dance in the religious frenzy.

The west wind in the sea disturbs the happy summer dreams of the Mediterranean by its wild commotion.⤏

           ‘’Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

             The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

             Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams’’…….

It excites the Mediterranean  and lashes it into waves and makes a passages through the Atlantic Ocean and the trees at the bottom of unsettled and shed leaves.⤍         

             ''Make me thy lyre,even as the forest is:

             What if………….impetuous one!''

The poet realizes his present condition.He is now weak for social conventions & political circumstances.He lost his vigour.He wants to revive his former self.So he invokes the west wind for strength and inspiration and to make him his lyre so that his hidden music[revolutionary ideals] may come out. 
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