Ode to the West Wind

Joe Olvera

English 2314

Paul Kintzele

10/01/05

Wild West Wind

An ode is a poem with extraordinary lyrics, aiming at loftier thought, and more complex formal structure than most lyrics. Another characteristic of an ode is that they are often addressed at something or someone.

An ode is a long lyric poem, highly interested in a specific subject, tone, and style, often written to celebrate an event, person, being or power. In which in “Ode to the West wind”, Shelley describes the winds mighty power and fierce strength, for example in “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley writes: “Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!”(Pg.447, line’s 13 and 14). The ode provides the readers to take a ride to their own private way of thinking. Almost all odes are poems of address in which there is repetition of the initial word of thou where an absent person or object is being addressed.

In “Ode to the West Wind” Shelley mainly concentrates his attention on his observations of the death caused by the autumn wind. He compares the “dead leaves” to “ghosts” and the “winged seeds to “dead bodies” which in “Odes to the West Wind,” he writes: “The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, each like a corpse within it’s grave,”(Pg.447, line’s 7 and 8). Little by little Shelley’s mind becomes full of dead thoughts, which overwhelm him, as his mind gets closer to autumns mood of nature therefore his mind creates a mood of the season and he becomes part of it. Of course he is aware the season is not to stay and rule forever for it is just a period of darkness and waits for spring to come and produce new life. In this poem the wind simply symbolizes unexplainable power and brute strength. The west wind is both “Destroyer and Preserver” which is responsible not only for the deadly signs of autumn, but also for the forthcoming of the lively spring. Throughout the whole poem “Ode of the West Wind” Shelley constantly repeats the characteristics of the west wind: he calls it “wild spirit which art moving everywhere,”(Pg.447, line 13) and calls its power “O uncontrollable,”(Pg.448, line 47). All theses characteristics express the impression that the wind is an absolute and free power, which influences everything around it.

Seeing the mighty influence of the wind on nature, appeals to his very own spirit so that he can also influence and change things around him. He wants to be able to influence the world with his