Ode to the West Wind is a Plea for Poetic Inspiration
With "Ode to the West Wind," Percy Bysshe Shelley presents a poetic prayerfilled with musical metaphors and themes of death, rebirth, inspiration,and liberation. The poem possesses dynamic language to convey theformidable forces of the West Wind, an autumnal energy "whose unseenpresence the leaves dead / Are driven," (2-3). The leaves refer not only tothe literal leaves off trees but also to leaves of paper, on which Shelleyconveys his messages to the world. "Ode to the West Wind" is largely a pleafor both personal and universal transformation. The West Wind transformsthe natural world, killing off all that is dead and decaying and makingroom for the "sweet buds" of Spring and the New Year (11). So too can the"breath of Autumn's being" drive Shelley's "dead thoughts over theuniverse," (63). Through his poetry, and renewed and revitalized byuniversal energy, Shelley hopes to awaken and enlighten a sleeping world.Musical metaphors link with the central images of wind and air, for Shelleyrefers exclusively to wind-dependent instruments: the lyre, the clarion,and the trumpet. Moreover, the poet ends the first three sections with aplea, "oh hear!" "Ode to the West Wind" evokes and lauds the West Win
"Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth / Ashes and sparks, mywords among mankind!" (66-67). Shelleyviews human consciousness as an organic substance, something thatexperiences seasonal change and which is affected by natural forces likethe wind. The poet further pleas, "Drive my deadthoughts over the universe / Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth,"(63-64). He begs the West Wind, which carries literal seeds tonew fertile ground, to also usher the symbolic seeds of thought to newfertile mental ground. Like the earth throughout winter, human consciousness ispotent in sleep and even in ignorance. Although the West Wind does not literally flow through the humanbrain, its archetypal power does. Similarly, Shelley depicts a "dome of avast sepulcher," a metaphor for the nighttime sky. Moreover, the sky as sepulcher encompassesthe entire world and the vast recesses of human consciousness. The seed metaphor continues in the last section of the poem, althoughShelley does not refer explicitly to the "winged seeds" he did in the firstsection. Through winter the earth literallysleeps: animals hibernate, trees appear dead. Therefore, the musical imagery contained in the odecarries the theme of death and rebirth that is central to the poem. The resulting musical messages can convey dawn and awakening. When the West Wind blesses his consciousness,Shelley can create lyrical songs, poems that issue from his mouth andhands. Shelley's mental seeds sprout into language andpoetry, which he sees as harbingers of consciousness change. Like the grave-like ground, the domed sepulcher is a place of powerful transformation.
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