( ……………Thou Dirge                                                                                                                                         Of the dying year, to which this closing night                                                                                             Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,                                                                                                          Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere                                                     Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst:

Ans. (3) The quoted lines occur in the celebrated poem “Ode to the West Wind” by the great Romantic poet P. B. Shelley. The poet here describes the fury of the storm caused by the West Wind in the sky.

In the sky, the West Wind brings about a violent storm. As the wind blows, it drives the loose masses of clouds across the sky. The sky gets overcast with black clouds. The clouds cover the sky from the verge of the horizon up to the highest point. As the wind blows violently bringing commotion in the sky, the poet is reminded of the death of the year. In Autumn, nature lies on deathbed and its actual death comes in Winter. As the poet listens to the tumult of the wind, it appears to him that the wind is singing the funeral song of the year. And the dark night sky, overcast with masses of black cloud, is likened to the vault of a vast grave in which the dead body of the year will be buried. Soon these black clouds will burst into thunder, rain and lightning. Thus the whole earth will experience the fury of the mighty West Wind.