…………………………….. O , Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Ans The quoted lines occur in the celebrated poem “Ode to the West Wind” by the great Romantic poet P. B. Shelley. This is the prophetic utterance of the poet about regeneration. Shelley’s optimism about a brighter future is at the peak here.

Shelley is deeply shocked to see mankind in a miserable condition. But he is hopeful of better days. Presently the earth is experiencing winter season which is symbol of hardship and difficulties. But after winter comes spring; the earth becomes adorned with numerous flowers of different colours and the whole earth is pervaded by the sweet fragrance of the flowers. The Spring stands for the joy and re-birth in Nature. Shelley, a pure optimist, cherishes the desire that though the humanity now undergoes a period of darkness, winter period, Spring will soon set in. In the natural cycle of season, the Winter is always followed by the Spring. Hence, Shelley is overtly hopeful. Thus here comes the mighty prophecy of hope and faith in the triumph of love and the Spirit over tyranny and forces of darkness. This prophecy is the message to man of the rebirth of soul. Beyond the storm, beyond the Winter, beyond the decay and barrenness of a wintry age, there glimmers the Spring of a millennium. And Shelley visualizes the outburst of a Spring of humanity, expressed so optimistically in the last line of the poem: “If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”