The wind is one of the most powerful forces known to man. It can do things that man has been envious of and also terrified of throughout the centuries. It is no wonder why Shelley decided to write a poem of praise in its name. Shelley writes this poem with the speaker being a poet himself frustrated that he can not tell the world the things that he feels the world needs to know. Throughout the poem he continually is describing what the wind can do and what he wishes the wind could do for him.
It may be better to describe Shelley before I try to interpret the poem. Shelley was an intelligent man who studied at Oxford before being kicked out for refusing to admit authorship of The Necessity of Atheism. He continued to write and express himself through his poetry with his wife until he moved to Italy away from all the English politics. After this move he finally started to write poetry that truly reflected his ideals. He continued writing his great works such a “To a Skylark” and “Prometheus Unbound” until his tragic death in a ship wreck off the coast of Italy. He was in the middle of writing what seemed to be his greatest piece The Triumph of Life. If Shelley would have lived longer who knows how many more great works he could have blessed us with.
The poem is slit up into five cantos with each one in iambic pentameter giving them the appearance of being a sonnet. Within these “sonnets” there is a terza rima rhyme scheme with a couplet at the end of each canto, which turns out to be A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D, E-E. Terza rima is an Italian rhyme scheme that has been most famously used in The Divine Comedy by Dante and of course the sonnet is a crown jewel of English literature. Since Shelly was an Englishman living in Italy feel...
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...nd that people in distant lands would hear of him and what he had to say. Today I sit here acting as the West Wind and writing what Percy Bysshe Shelley had to say, and that is that “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”(Shelley 70)
Works Cited
Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir. The Oxford Book of English Verse.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1919, [c1901]; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/101/. [3/16/10].
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ode to the West Wind Rhyme, Form & Meter."
Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.15 Mar 2010.
"Percy Bysshe Shelley." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1994-2010. Answers.com 16 Mar. 2010.http://www.answers.com/topic/percy-bysshe-shelley
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ode to the West Wind Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay."
Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 15 Mar 2010.
Shelley uses symbolic meaning to depict the destruction of a statue and the “sands that stretch far away” in relation to the effects of pride, a direct contrast from the words on the pedestal. The images of the deteriorating items gives the readers an understanding of time’s ultimate power beyond both life and pride. However, the cliché use of sands as a means of representing time still explains to readers that the passing of time is prevalent in the poem and related to the destroyed items presents the concept of a useless
In this poem, Frost includes his fear of the ocean and exaggerates its destructive power. As Judith Saunders stated that “The first thirteen lines have depicted an ocean storm of unusual force, and through personification the poet attributes to this storm a malign purposefulness” (1). Frost provided human characteristics on the storm to help prove his point that the ocean has bad intentions and its only purpose is to hurt him. Frost does not describe the waves as a result of unfavorable weather; he explains them as having a malignant intention to destroy the world. This poem revolves around the forces of nature and could be included in the long list of nature themed poems by Robert Frost.
“I was departed on none and related to none. The path of my department was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation”(Shelley 114). Due to the Creature’s isolation the only influence present was the world around him. Throughout the novel Shelley “illustrates that several factors can impose limits and bounds on one’s nature.” These limits and bonds consist of “Physical appearence and consequent social alienation”. Although the imposed limits do have an effect on one's attitude, Shelly demonstrates that the nature of man consists of “both circumstance and personal choice”. In the novel the question ;“Was man, indeed at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?”(Shelley 80) is posed. Through this Shelley is distinctly referencing a humans ability to possess both good and bad qualities. As the creature must surpass “The unnatural hideousness of [his]person" (Shelley 89) Shelly emphasizes the correlation between how society perceives the creature and how that perception eventually affects the Creatures view of himself.“ It is only upon being rejected because of his appearence that the creature becomes the monster that Frankeinstein sees him as ” The creature is shown to have good qualities such as empathy such as when he states;“wh...
Shelley’s allusions display the creatures anguish of being alone in the world and how it causes him to feel: “ Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence… I was wretched, helpless, and alone.” (93-94), this allusion is crucial because it shows the reader just how awful the influences of solitude are on the creature and how his circumstances have caused him to become grieved and destitute. Another illusion similar to before take place when the monster compares himself to Satan: “Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.” (94), the monster now resents the people of the cottage because they are able to converse and associate with others while the creature is forced to stay secluded from all contact. Allusions such as these enforce Shelley 's purpose of depicting the calamitous effects of solitude on the mind. By now the reader should understand that men need to be around others like themselves because all creatures desire to have a group into which they
Percy Shelley wrote many exceptional and memorable stories through poetry. Born in 1792, and died in 1822, Shelly did not live a very long life. Actually Shelly, along with the other generation two writers of the Romantic era died young; however, the way Shelly had died was very shocking. After publishing one of his famous works, Ode to the West Wind, only a few weeks after Shelly died from the west winds destroying his ship and resulting in Shelley drowning. As tragic as that was not only is his works very remarkable, but these three stories, Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, and To a Skylark all paint a strong sensory image; however, the one providing the clearest sense of ideas and feelings would be Ozymandias because the pharaoh took high pride in himself, thought to be the best there was at ruling, and finally the pharaoh’s quote on the statue that he had displayed around the cities he had created.
...ilton's "Paradise Lost" to her advantage in this book. Drawing on Christian beliefs and a societal reverence for the epic gives "Frankenstein" a comparison that draws out moral limitations in our humanity. Although many moral limitations can be detected from each of the characters, the limitations I focused on were, in my belief, the most specific to Shelley's overall romantic and gothic state of reasoning. In this era, and even today, the thought of human limitation gives people a better understanding of our place in the world. The individual ego creates a dangerous place for many of us, a place Shelley describes through Victor Frankenstein's creation. Above all, I think Shelley's story relates human limitations and public progression to remind society that we have an obligation to remain in admiration of our creator, nature, and the miracle of our own existence.
Percy Bysshe Shelley died before seeing how influential and glorified his work would become. Shelley lived during the late 18th and early 19th century, during the industrial revolution. Seeing the evolving world, Shelley wrote for nothing more than to deliver urgent messages concerning humanity, humanity’s future, and who the powers at be should be. Shelley didn’t see the glory he deserved during his lifetime because his radical views of anti-tyranny were expressed in his poetry, driving them to underground distribution, but after his death he inspired countless other literary artists including including Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and Upton Sinclair and became regarded as a major romantic poet. Shelley exchanged his ideas with a group of visionary
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! – Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips.” (Shelley 34)
Shelley was the daughter of Wollstonecraft, the Enlightenment Philosopher that was briefly examined a few paragraphs prior. In this novel, a very young but very intelligent scientist, Victor, creator a form of human being, the Monster. After the creation of the Monster, Victor becomes very sick in his stomach in regards to his creation. The Monster is very empathetic and loving by nature. He has ambitions of a companion. The Monster expresses his ambitions to Victor. Victor does not comply with the Monsters request for a companion. This is the turning point for the Monster. This is very compelling because this novel attributes traits and paradigms from both sides of the scale, Enlightenment and Romanticism. This is relevant because Victor is very much an Enlightened thinking man. He is educated and a scientist. He seems to think that science can cure the world's ailments. On the contrary, the Monster is very much a Romantic. He reads poetry. His ambitions are typically emotional. He enjoys nature and is emotional in his decisions. The clash of these two ideologies resulted in the death of Victor’s new bride and the death of the Monster. Ironically, if Victor, Enlightenment, and the Monster, Romanticism, would have acted in corraboration maybe something beautiful could have been created. This novel is a hybrid of these two
As each work progresses, a personal change is expressed. The first section of “Ode to the West Wind” presents a speaker —who is also the author— who seems to be intently overserving the wind; however by the final section, he desires to be like the wind. When he writes that the Wind should “Be thou, Spirit fierce, / My spirit! Be thou me” (Lines 61-62), the author expresses a deep desire to be one with powerful force. A few lines later, he asks the wind to “Drive my dead thoughts over the universe / …to quicken a new birth!” (Lines 63-64) “Scatter, as …/ Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind” (Lines 66-67). In this instance, the “dead thoughts” are Shelley’s previous works. By making a comparison between his words and “ashes and sparks” (Line 67), Shelley expresses the idea that even though his previous works are dead and separated from him, he hopes his words will be able to inspire or ignite new thoughts and artistry in others. At the same time, Byron presents a different sort of personal experience. In the first stanza, Byron writes that “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, /…rapture on the lonely shore” (Lines 1-2). He later writes that when he is in solitude, and surrounded by nature, he feels “What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal” (Line 9). By using these descriptions, Byron shows that there is a type of restoring quality that the natural world can have on a person, an
The wind seems to be a symbol of hope. Hope that he has entrusted in the form of nature. A hope that maybe he can trust that there is no such thing as a ghost that is lurking around tapping on his widows and chamber doors. The narrator looks for a way to make the wind the source of his problems instead of the potential cause that he is having repercussions from a broken
Shelley is able to use the harmlessness of nature as another point in her argument towards the dangers of scientific discoveries. By using nature as a type of getaway for the monster to go to when reality has gotten to hard, Shelly gives the reader the sense that when science and reality will fail you, the good ways of nature will always be there to cheer you up and make you feel better. The monster explains how his mind will often “ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation.”(Shelley, 41) By having the creature find tranquility in nature Shelley is reinforcing the idea that nature is a calm and peaceful place to be with no danger. As the creature recounts his reality he speaks about how he is alone and looks towards the stories he has read while hiding in the forest to see if he can find any answers stating “I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.”(Shelley,41) Shelley here is showing the scientific backlashes of Frankenstein's creation. In the first half of this quote where the creature was
Unlike the neoclassical writers who favored the safe and calm nature of pastures and meadows, Shelley favored the dark unpredictable and intimidating side of nature. For this reason he wrote about the west wind (autumn wind) in his poem Ode to the West Wind. The west wind comes after the summer time and announces the coming of autumn and then goes into the winter. The wind is violent and dark; it harkens death and suggest the upcoming winter. It’s not a happy wind. This violent wind is something that would have been feared by neoclassical writers and would have never been written about. Since Romantics didn’t like to use rhyming couplets, Shelley wrote Ode to the West Wind as a lyrical Ode. It consist of 14 lines and follows the rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc ded ee. Shelley writes a lot about melancholy in Ode to the West Wind a trait commonly found in Romantic writers. He expresses his growing sadness and unhappiness throughout the poem. Romantic writers were fascinated with the idea of Revolution, because the American Revolution had just occurred and the French Revolution was an ongoing event. In Ode to the West Wind some ideas of revolution can be seen, where Shelley is praising the wind for being different and going
The poem has set a certain theme and tone but no definite rhyme. In this poem, the poet explores into a thought of the self, the all-encompassing "I," sexuality, democracy, the human body, and what it means to live in the modern world. He addresses that the human body is sacred and every individual human is divine. Hence, Whitman was known for writing poems about individualism, democracy, nature, and war.
...d of this poem Shelley asks, "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (678) Now I wonder if this is just another line emphasizing rebirth and the similarities between the seasons. Or is Shelley saying this because he is getting the sense that the closer he gets to death the more he questions whether rebirth is real.