Ode of the West Wind by Percy Shelley

Percy Shelley was a rebellious writer. Many of the things that he had written didn’t really follow the social standards of his time. Many times, he would call something out or introduce many ludicrous ideas. He also was a huge fan of William Wordsworth, a poet who thought the Industrial Revolution was ruining our connection towards nature. So, Shelley tended to follow this theme, except in a more rebellious way and Adam Kirsch agrees when he states, “Unlike the average radical, then, Shelley didn't just challenge social taboos; he openly violated them, living his personal life in accordance with unpopular principles like equality, women's rights, and free love.” (Kirsch, Adam). One of the many tools Shelley used in his writing was the use of personification, or treating non-human things as if they were human. For example, Ode of the West used personifies the wind which is shown throughout the poem as he speaks to the wind like he would a person. In To a Skylark, he admires the bird and uses many creative images to express the wonder and magnificent qualities of the skylark. Percy Shelley’s poems Ode of the West Wind and Too a Skylark both use imagery to show links between spirit and nature, and they each use personification of different things to show these connections.

First of all, both of Shelley’s poems Ode of the West Wind and Too a Skylark use imagery to illustrate connections between nature and spirit. Ode of the West has many magnificent images that are described throughout the poem. Shelley used many illustrating words that really formed a picture of what he was talking about. The connection of nature and spirit are shown in lines such as, “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, / Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O...

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...that show connections between spirit and nature.

Works Cited

Donovan, Josephine. "Aestheticizing Animal Cruelty." College Literature 4(2011):202. eLibrary. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Kirsch, Adam.. "AVENGING ANGEL ; Books." New Yorker, The. 27 Aug. 2007: 85. eLibrary. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Knapp, John. "The spirit of classical hymn in Shelley's "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"." Style 33. 1(1999):43. eLibrary. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Neth, J., Michael.. "The Shelley-Byron Conversation.(book reviews)." ANQ 9. (1996):61(4). eLibrary. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

William, James , 1792-1822 (1792-1822) The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems: Edited with textual notes by Thomas Hutchinson Oxford The Clarendon Press 1904 xxvii, 1023 p. Preliminaries, introductory, and editorial matter omitted; non-English verse omitted.