Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792~1822)

Age of Romanticism

Ode to the West Wind

( selected verses )

Let His Ode SPEAK you!

Shelley~ prominent figure of Romanticism

His Philosophy of ”Free- Thinking” enlightens the Humanity!

Romanticism~ 18th to 19th century

Focuses on passion and inner struggle

Creative Spirit is more important than the strict adherance to Tradition!

O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Destroyer and Preserver; hear oh hear!

Dialog between Shelley and the personified West Wind

Shelly: Oh! West Wind of the Autumn Season, the driving force over land,sky and under the ocean; I beg you to listen to me!

You are the destroyer and preserver!

Thou on whose stream,mid the steep sky’s commotion

Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed, shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean

Angels of rain and lightning

:

Like the bright hair

uplifted from the head

Of

some fierce

Maenad!

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: Oh hear!

Dialog between Shelley and

the personified West Wind

West Wind: “ No doubt I am the destroyer, for I cause great

commotions in the sky driving fierce winds;

I bring Black rain, lightening and hail.

I am the fierce Maenad!”

For whose path the Atlantic level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean.

If I were a deaf leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! Lift me as a wave , a leaf, a cloud!

Fall upon the thorns of life !I bleed!

Dialog between Shelley and the personified West Wind

Shelly: “Though you drive the stormy clouds and penetrates the Atlantic mounting surging waves I beg of you : Lift up the Dead Thoughts within me and carry them away just as you would uplift the Dead leaves of Autumn!”

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

Be thou me, impetuous one!

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawakened earth.

Dialog between Shelley and the personified West Wind

Shelly: “Oh!West Wind,make me as tameless,mighty, and impetuous as you are!Let me be your lyre, composer of mighty harmonies and visions; And that the fire of free-thinking may revive. You are the fire preserver!”

Dialog between Shelley and the personified West Wind

West Wind: “Though I destroy as well as preserve, yet I am unable to create. The Ashes and Sparks I revived are your words and visions that will enlighten the civilization.Yet how will these driving powers for humanity and free-thinking continue to spring out from such a young and revolutionary mind as you?”

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave,until

Thine azure sister of Spring shall blow

The trumpet of a prophecy!

O wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far

Behind?

Dialog between Shelley and the personified West Wind

Shelley: “The Spring will help me revive humanity; just as it breaths life into seeds of free-thinking so that hopes for an everlasting bright future will finally resurrect in us!”