Author: imrantosharit

Percy Bysshe Shelley has passionate feeling about beauty and expression and this is documented in his poem “To a Skylark”.

Ans. Shelley has passionate feeling about beauty and expression and this is documented in his poem “To a Skylark”. A close reading of the poem reveals the poem as unique, structurally and linguistic ally. The poet captures the reader’s attention, with his use of metaphors and excellent word choices, as he conveys themes of the poem to us through the skylark. The skylark is free from all human errors and complications, and as the poet listens to the song of the skylark, he is inspired to write the poem with the message of self-perception and power of the mind and imagination.

The form and structure of the poem is like a song. The flowing verse and diction have a lilt that advances the poet to greater heights of inspiration and natural poetic genius. The five line stanzas, all twenty one f them follow the same pattern. The first four lines are metered in trochaic trimester, the fifth in iambic hexameter, and each stanza has a simple rhyme scheme of ABABB. Structurally, each verse makes a single observation about the skylark or looks at it in a new light, mainly the natural purity and divinity that it radiates.

The poet uses word choices with strong meaning, for instance, “Chorus hymeneal” and “triumphal chant”, which make the reader visualize the spiritual music the lark is producing. Shelley finds hims elf in an ecstatic mood as he listens raptly to the celestial song of the bird. He is extremely joyful, but in his world he can experience sadness, whereas the skylark “lovest — but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety”. The bird is from the natural world and free from the sadness of the real world. It is free from worry about death and the end of its life which makes it different from mortals who are forever worrying and dwelling on the inevitability of death.

The poet gives us a visual presence of a ghostly form as he writes: “Scattering unbeholden among the flowers and grass that screen it from our view”, and it hides “like a rose embowered in its own leaves”. The skylark has a beauty of its own and is a liberated spirit, free from all the human worries. It has no earthly failings, as it soars higher and higher. It inspires the poet as it sings, and the writer is overwhelmed with unbounded joy as he listens to the sweet song of the bird. He pleads: “Teach us. Sprite or Bird,/ What sweet thoughts are thine”. We can almost feel the divine joy the poet is experiencing, while he watches this bird or free spirit, with its extraordinary hypnotic presence.

He asks the bird to teach him “Half the gladness that thy brain must know”, for then he would pour out with “harmonious madness,” and in doing so, would make the world listen to his message. Shelley’s skylark would bring the message of hope and the belief that through ‘poetry’, society can improve morally and spiritually. Shelley is attempting to communicate a visual viewpoint to the reader through metaphors of nature, with the skylark being his natural metaphor for the unadulterated poetic expression. Shelley is educating the reader through the skylark. The poet wonders if they could ever imagine the joy expressed by the skylark. The human imagination works with the “skylark” to impose harmony on its melody and they become one, allowing the poet to write and create such melodious verse.

Shelley is one of the best poets of the Romantic period. His gift to write is able to unite nature with the self, to portray his messages of beauty, nature and political liberty. Shelley has a caring nature about the world and how society can improve ethically, and spiritually, through the reading of poetic verse.

Q.2. Comment on Shelley’s presentation of, attitude to, the bird in his poem “To a Skylark”.
Or,
How does Shelley idealize the Skylark in his poem “To a Skylark”?
Or,
How does Shelley establish the superiority of the Skylark in his poem “To a Skylark”?
Or,
How does Shelley idealize the songs of the Skylark iii his poem “To a Skylark”?

Ans. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “To a Skylark” is about a skylark, a miniscule bird that is famous for its song. Shelley idealizes the bird and compares it to many different beautiful things to show that the skylark is far more superior to them.

Shelley begins with exclamation with, ‘Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!’. This could suggest that the skylark is being used as a metaphor. This is strongly enforced by the second line of, ‘Bird thou never wert’, suggesting that the bird is a spirit. The next line ‘purest thy full heart’ illustrates the huge amount of music the lark brings. This is also shown in the sixth stanza with the line, ‘The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed’. This line means that the amount of voice and song that the lark has can be compared with the amount of moon light there is.

Shelley presents the skylark as superior to every earthly object. It is ‘Like a star of Heaven’ and is superior to Earth and unseen ‘In the broad daylight’. The skylark with its melodious song is a mystery to the poet. The mystery that surrounds the bird makes Shelley puts forward the question: “What thou art we know not;/ What is most like thee?” He also tells about his point of admiration for the bird. He comments that the rain of melody flowing out of the song of the skylark is brighte; than drops of rain poured from rainbow cloud: “From rainbow clouds there flow not! Drops so bright to see! As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.” The poet then goes on to present the bird through a series of comparisons or similes. The bird has been beautifully compared to a poet hidden in the light of thought, to a highborn maiden in a palace tower, to a glow-worm golden in a deli of dew, and to a rose embowered in its own green leaves.

But the comparisons are not enough to describe the beauty and pre-eminence of the bird. To Shelley, the skylark is an immortal being symbolizing illimitable beauty. Shelley idealizes the skylark in the following lines:

“With thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be:
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee:
Thou lovest: but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.”

Like Keats’s nightingale, Shelley’s skylark is free from ‘the weariness, the fever and the fret’ that plague human beings. The feelings of weariness never disturb the joy experienced by the skylark. The feelings of trouble and dissatisfaction do not touch the heart of the bird. Its joy is unflagging and undisturbed by troubles and anxieties. The joy and happiness of man are imperfect but those of the skylark are perfect.

In “To a Skylark”, Shelley subjectively treats the bird. He etherealizes the skylark into a spirit — a spirit of joy. To him, it is not a bird of flesh and blood but ‘a blithe Spirit’, an ‘unbodied joy whose race is just begun’. He idealizes the bird to such an extent that he tells that more than the delightful music of the earthly people or the wisdom stored in books the lark’s music is a source of inspiration to the port:

“Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!”

The skylark is a ‘scorner of the ground’. Its music is perfect embodiment of beauty and joy and hence an endless source of inspiration for the poet. Being overwhelmed by the lark’s song Shelley implores the bird to inspire him with its joy and happiness:

“Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.”

Shelley is confident that if he could get the happiness and joy of the skylark in his heart, he would produce such fine poetry of deep inspiration that the people in the world would listen to him with rapt attention.

In “To a Skylark”, Shelley idealizes the bird and makes it a symbol of eternal joy and beauty. He presents it as a spirit, not as a bird of flesh and blood. His treatment of the bird is quite subjective.

Q . Comment on Shelley’s use of imagery in his poem “To a Skylark”.

Ans. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s celebrated poem “To a Skylark” is about a skylark, a miniscule bird that is famous for its song. The poet comp ares the skylark to many different beautiful things to show that the skylark is far more superior to them. The vivid use of imagery throughout the poem attracts the reader’s interest and conveys the poet’s creativity. The poem is packed with imagery which not only shows its uniqueness but also the intensity and sophistication of the poet.

“To a Skylark” establishes somewhat supernatural atmosphere and the diction used aids this eerie ambience. Shelley addresses the skylark as “blithe Spirit” rather than a bird, for its song comes from Heaven, and from its full heart pour “profuse strains of unpremeditated art”. The skylark flies higher and higher, “like a cloud of fire” in the blue sky, singing as it flies. Shelley manipulates imagery well to show the actions of the skylark. The various beautiful stanzas of the poem are those in which the bird is compared to different objects of nature and life. The superiority of the bird’s song is brought home in a series of vivid images.

The bird is “Like a star of Heaven”, unseen in broad daylight. But it declares its presence through its loud song of joy. It is compared to the moon that in the morning is obscured by the light of the sun. The poet compares the skylark to the moon and its music to the beams 0 the moon. Just as the beams of the moon flood the sky with light, similarly the music of the skylark floods the earth with its melody.

The invisible skylark is compared to a poet immersed in the light of his own thoughts:

“Like a Poet hidden
In the light of thought,
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:”

The skylark is like an aristocratic maiden of the mediaeval world of romance. The heart of the maiden is filled with the pang of separation because her lover is away. She soothes her love-sick heart by her sweet melody which fills her chamber. In the same way, the skylark pours out the feeling of love in her heart through her songs which fills the earth.

The poet compares the invisible skylark to the golden glow-worm which diffuses its light in the valley which is moist-with dew-drops, while remaining itself unseen. The glow-worm is hidden from sight, though its golden light is seen.

The skylark is like a rose that scatters perfume but one cannot see the rose as it is concealed in the thick foliage. The winds take away the fragrance of the flower and permeate the whole atmosphere. In the same way, the melody of the unseen skylark overflows the world beneath:

“Like a rose embower’d
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower’d,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged

The images used by Shelley are fresh, delicate and vivid and suggest the symbolic character of the skylark. This richness of imagery is one of the distinctive qualities of “To a Skylark”. The rapid succession of images enchants the reader. The richness of images alludes to Shelley’s imaginative genius, and the gift for coining similes and metaphors for heightening the effect of the poem.

Describe, after Shelley, the effects of the West Wind on the earth, in the sky and over the ocean.
Or,
Describe the various activities of the West Wind on land, in the sky and on the sea.

Ans. “Ode to the West Wind” is one of the most famous poems by Shelley and it was published in the same book, which consists of his famous drama, Prometheus Unbound, and many magnificent lyric poems. He wrote this poem in the autumn of 1819 in Florence. The poem is considered as one of the noblest lyrics in English. It bears testimony to the poetic genius that Shelley was.

In “Ode to the West Wind” the poet subjectively treats the wind and gives it a mythical stature. He underlines the forceful aspects of the autumnal wind and calls it both a ‘preserver’ and a ‘destroyer’. By using a series of vivid images, gives graphic descriptions of the effects of the West Wind on the earth, in the key and over the ocean. The poet describes the mighty powers of the West Wind both as a destroyer and preserver. As a destroyer the wind drives away the pale dry leaves of trees and preserves the seeds in the moist earth for germination in the coming spring-time.

In the second stanza of “Ode to the West Wind”, Shelley describes the commotion that the mighty West Wind brings in the sky. The wind breaks the clouds up “like earth’s decaying leaves” that are shaken “from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean”. The forceful wind breaks apart the clouds and scatters them just like leaves from trees. Shelley compares rain and lightning to angels, and says the wind spreads them both through the sky “like the bright hair uplifted from the head”. So, the rain and lighting are spread across the sky like someone’s hair that is lifted up and splayed in the wind. He then compares the wind to a crazy, intense, wild-woman (Maenad) to indicate a coming storm. The wind spreads the clouds in a way that the entire sky from the dim horizon up to the highest zenith becomes overcast with them. These clouds bring thunder, rain and lightning — “black rain, and fire, and hail”. As the sky becomes overcast with black clouds, the whole nature appears as a big dome of a grave in which the ‘dying year’ will be buried. Thus, the West Wind bring great commotions in the sky resulting in thunder, rain and lightning.

In the third stanza, Shelley presents the operation of the autumnal wind on the seas. The Wind arouses the Mediterranean from its slumber in which the sea dreams about the 01(1 palaces and,towers submerged in its own blue deep. The Wild Wind then makes a lashing progress through the waters of the Atlantic, dividing the mighty Atlantic’s ‘level powers’ into two halves, its impact reaching miles below to turn the submarine nature grey in fear. The wind causes a violent commotion in the seaweeds and the flowers that bloom on the weeds. The poet imagines that these weeds tremble with fear of the West Wind turn pale and shed their leaves and flowers. Thus, the mighty West Wind brings great changes on the earth, in the sky and over the seas.

Q.8. How Does Shelley present the West Wind as a tool for change?
Or,
Consider Shelley as a revolutionary poet with reference to the poem “Ode to the West Wind”.

Ans. Shelley was an ardent philanthropist who wished to rouse a soporific world from its moral stupor. A visionary anarchist he decried the enslavement of the mind by church, law, custom and tradition. He inveighed against priests, kings, soldiers and magistrates and other wielders of institutional authority. Despite his invective against organized oppression, Shelley spurned violent modes of redress. True emancipation, he believed, ensues from the cultivation of tolerance, austerity, temperance and unfettered discussion not armed revolt.

In the preface to “Prometheus Unbound” Shelley acknowledges the fact that he has a passion for reforming the world.” His passion has got clear expression in his poem “Ode to the West Wind”. Here he portrays the autumnal west wind as a destroyer and a preserver. After analyzing the poem it becomes apparent that the West Wind is a symbolic representation of the poetic power that can reform the world. He endeavours through his poetry to effect the changes that were desperately needed by the world of his time. With the help of an archetypal symbol, the West Wind, Shelley describes the present decrepit state of the human civilization and forecasts the advent of a glorious future of mankind. The poem moves on three levels: natural, personal and universal. And everywhere the West Wind serves as the point of reference as the symbol of change. The West Wind acts as a driving force for change and rejuvenation in the human and natural world. Shelley views winter not just as last phase of vegetation but as the last phase of life in the individual, the imagination, civilization and religion.

In the final stanzas of “Ode to the West Wind”, Shelley has the wind transforming from the natural world towards human suffering. Shelley pleads with the wind: “Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!”. He seeks transcendence from the wind and says: “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed”. He again pleads with the wind: “Drive my dead thought over the universe…to quicken a new birth!” He asks the wind to “Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth! Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!! Be through my lips to unawakened Earth”. The words “unextinguished hearth” represent the poet’s undying passion for change. He says that his lips are the “trumpet of prophecy”.

The poet vehemently urges the West Wind to infuse its vigour and power into him, so that he can play the “trumpet of prophecy” and render his massage to mankind. He wants to awake mankind from their “wintry slumber”. He wants to break the shackles that bind humanity. He stands against oppression’s, persecutions of the society and the restrictions imposed upon the free thinking of man. He needs to be endowed with the energy of the West Wind in order to bring in a golden millennium, a new era where man should be “an equal amidst equals” (Queen Mab).

For Shelley, the West Wind is more than a wind. It is not only a natural phenomenon affecting changes in the natural world. It is Shelley’s symbol for regeneration, a vehicle of his revolutionary romanticism. It is an uncontrollable spirit who can rescue and elevate the poet, fallen among ‘the thorns of life’, to become the harbinger of the great agency of change. In ‘Make me thy lyre’, Shelley implores the wind, and urges it to bring forth a new spring of life in the dead winter of man’s world.

Q.S. Critically comment on Shelley’s treatment of nature in his poem “Ode to the West Wind”.
Or,
Consider Shelley as a poet of nature with reference to his poem “Ode to the West Wind”.

Ans. Nature or love for nature is one of the dominant themes in the romantic poetry. The Romantic poets differed significantly from one another in their treatment of nature. Despite their profound love of nature, they looked at her from their own viewpoints. Like other Romantic poets, Shelley is also an ardent lover and worshipper of nature. Almost all his poems abound in nature imagery and some of his poems are poems purely of nature, such as “Ode to the West Wind”, “The Cloud”, and “To a Skylark”. In “Ode to the West Wind”, Shelley takes a powerful force from nature, the West Wind and renders it a mythical stature. Despite his subjective treatment of the natural object, Shelley does not attribute any human characteristics on it. To him, nature is a ceaseless source of inspiration and power.

Shelley’s love for nature has got clear manifestation in the poem “Ode to the West Wind”. His fascination for the mighty power of the West Wind is evident throughout the poem. He gives graphic descriptions of the forceful aspects of the wind. He brings out the duality in the wind — a ‘destroyer’ and a ‘preserver’ simultaneously. By means of images taken from nature, Shelley graphically describes the changes that the West Wind brings on the earth, in the sky and over the ocean. On the earth, it destroys the old leaves but carries and scatters ‘winged-seeds’ to the wintry beds where they wait for their germination in the spring. In the sky, it drives the clouds and causes storm and rain which sings together the dirge of the dying year. It also puts the waves of the sea in agitation. It arouses from its sleep the prodigious Mediterranean. It cleaves its way through the level Atlantic so that the vegetation at its bottom is disturbed. The sea flowers grow pale with fear and drop their petals. The descriptions allude to Shelley’s fascination for forceful aspects of nature.

To Shelley, forces of nature possess redeeming quality. They have the power to bring about revolutionary changes. He looks upon the West Wind as a great phenomenon of nature endowed with great power to rid human beings of their pain and agonies. This is why he turns to the West Wind and makes a fervent appeal to liberate him from the present decrepit condition:

“Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.”

Shelley desires to share the strength and impulse of the West Wind. He has lost his youthful energy and has fallen upon the ‘thorns of life’. He is crushed by the circumstances of life. He voices his faith that the wind can restore his lost energy and impart its strength to him. In the last stanza, Shelley directly and explicitly asks the West Wind to make him an instrument and tool of revolutionary change:
“make me thy lyre” and “drive my dead thoughts over the universe”. The poem ends optimistically — “0, Wind/ If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?”

Shelley personifies the West Wind and gives it an independent life. He also personifies the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, giving each a separate existence. These forces of nature are so vitally imagined that they become presence. This giving of individual life to different forces of nature is Shelley’s myth-making quality. He gives conscious life to the West Wind, Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, but he does not attribute any other human qualities to them. He does not look upon nature or natural phenomenon as disguised beings. Nature does not teach him any moral lesson. To Shelley, the West Wind is still a wind, and the cloud a cloud, however intense a reality they might be for him. In his poetry, they keep their own character and do not take on human attributes. Shelley stands quite aloof in his subjective treatment of nature.

                                 THE SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE IN SHELLEY’S POEM

Bring out the symbolic significance of the West Wind in Shelley’s poem “Ode to the West Wind”?

On the surface, the West Wind in Shelley’s ode is the autumnal wind called Affricus. But Shelley has made it a potent symbol, a vehicle of his revolutionary romanticism. The wind is deified as a double agency of destruction and preservation, of new life alter decay and death, of a spring at the end of the winter.

It is the onset of the autumnal West Wind and its violent impact on the land, in the sky, and on the seas which the poet uses as his descriptive frame. In a series of vivid images, Shelley describes the various activities of the West Wind. It is a ‘destroyer and preserver’ at the same time. It scatters the dry leaves of the tress as it sweeps through the forest in Autumn. It also carries the winged-seeds, as if on a chariot, and deposits them in the cold underground soul, where they remain buried throughout the Winter and germinate in the Spring. In the sky, the Wind causes great commotion. It carries the loose masses of clouds making the entire space from the dim horizon up to the highest point in the sky overcast with these black clouds. These clouds bring thunder, rain and lightning in their wake. The mighty influence of the West Wind is also felt on the sea. It arouses the sleeping Mediterranean from its slumber. As the wind blows with its vigorous force, the ruined tower and palaces under the water app ear clearly visible through the shining water of the sea. As it blows violently over the surface of the Atlantic, deep hollows are produced in the waves. Even the underwater vegetation — the sea-weeds tremble with fear of the West Wind and shed their leaves and flowers. Through optical images the poet establishes the West Wind as a great force.

But the visual images of the wind’s operation and the poet’s contemplation’s more and more emphasize the spiritual character of the wind, the wind as symbolic of universal commotion effecting a change from degeneration to regeneration. On the land, the wind scavenges the earth’s floors to drive away all the dead leaves, and simultaneously, carrying the seeds of new life to their ‘dark wintry beds’ only to germinate at the call of the vernal wind. In the sky, the wind blows all over to produce a Bacchanalia inviting thunder showers to mark the end of autumn. The wind passes over the ‘mighty Atlantic’ to usher in a seasonal change at its bottom. The mighty force of the West Wind, through its various activities on land, in the sky and on the sea, brings changes. It is a great instrument for change. It is a vehicle of change that brings changes in the natural world.

For Shelley, the West Wind is more than a wind. It is not only a natural phenomenon affecting changes in the natural world. It is Shelley’s symbol for regeneration, a vehicle of his revolutionary romanticism. It is an uncontrollable spirit who can rescue and elevate the poet, fallen among ‘the thorns of life’, to become the harbinger of the great agency of change. In ‘Make me thy lyre’, Shelley implores the wind, and urges it to bring forth a new spring of life in the dead winter of man’s world.

SHELLEY AS THE WEST WIND “DESTROYER AND PRESERVER”

Q.S.Bring out the duality of the Wind’s power in Shelley’s / poem “Ode to the West Wind”.
Or,
Shelley calls the West Wind “Destroyer and Preserver.” How does his Ode bring out this twofold nature of the wind?

How does Shelley build up the image of the West Wind as a “destroyer and preserver” in “Ode to the West Wind”?

Ans. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is a wonderful lyric in the tradition of romantic poetry. In the poem, Shelley considers himself as a poet prophet campaigning for reform and revolution using the ‘Wild West Wind’ to destroy everything that is old and defunct and plant new and progressive, liberal and democratic ideals in its stead. He underlines the forceful aspects of the autumnal wind and calls it both a ‘preserver’ and a ‘destroyer’. The wind destroys with a view to creating space for new creations. This duality of the wind is at the core of Shelley’s poem.

The poet describes the mighty powers of the West Wind both as a destroyer and preserver. As a destroyer the wind drives away the pale dry leaves of trees and preserves the seeds in the moist earth for germination in the coming spring-time. Metaphorically in the poem, the ‘dead leaves’ stand for old ideas and ‘winged-seeds’ symbolize new ideas that can bring about desired change in the world. The West Wind is thus both ‘destroyer’ and ‘preserver.’

As the West Wind is a very powerful force, it causes great commotions on the earth, in the sky and over the ocean. In the sky, the wind breaks the clouds up “like earth’s decaying leaves” that are shaken “from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean”. Shelley compares rain and lightning to angels, and says the wind spreads them both through the sky “like the bright hair uplifted from the head”. The wind spreads the clouds in a way that the entire sky from the dim horizon up to the highest zenith becomes overcast with them. It creates great commotion in the sky. In the third stanza, Shelley presents the operation of the autumnal wind on the seas. The Wind arouses the Mediterranean from its slumber in which the sea dreams about the old palaces and towers submerged in its own blue deep. The Wild Wind then makes a lashing progress through the water of the Atlantic, dividing the mighty Atlantic’s ‘level powers’ into two halves, its impact reaching miles below to turn the submarine nature grey in fear. Thus the destructive forceful aspect of the wind is underlined in the first three stanzas of the poem.

But in the mighty power of the wind Shelley sees a great liberating force. This is why he makes an earnest plea to the West Wind to infuse him with its raw power and liberate him from the bout of depression which has temporarily overwhelmed him. Like the West Wind, Shelley once was ‘uncontrollable’ and “tameless, and swift, and proud”. But now, he is depressed and weighed down by the cares and anxieties of life. He passionately appeals to the wind to lift him up just like the way it lifts up the leaves on the earth and the clouds on the sky and the waves on the sea. Shelley looks upon the wind as a great force that can liberate him from the “thorns of life” on which he has fallen.

In the concluding stanza, Shelley directly and explicitly asks the West Wind to make him an instrument and tool of revolutionary change: “make me thy lyre” and “drive my dead thoughts over the universe”. The poem ends optimistically — “0, wind! If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?” Thus, throughout the poem, the duality of the wind’s power is emphasized. It is treated as a mighty force that destroys the old and creates space for the germination of new.

COMMENT ON SHELLEY’S USE OF IMAGERY IN HIS POEM “ODE TO THE WEST WIND”.
OR,
WRITE A NOTE ON SHELLEY’S USE OF IMAGERY WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO “ODE TO THE WEST WIND.” 

Ans. Shelley was a great imagist and the images he picked were not of ordinary types. His images are mostly kinaesthetic in nature. Most of his images are like close fitting garments of thoughts — brief, apt and illuminating. In his celebrated poem “Ode to the West Wind”, Shelley deftly uses images with a view to bringing his ideas home. The poem is given a subtle unified texture by the overlapping of images, the echo of words, rhyme sounds and alliterative patterns, and the frequent similes. Images drawn from nature abound in the poem. The changing aspects of the West Wind are illustrated through a series of images.

The most dominant image of the poem is the West Wind itself. Throughout the poem, the West Wind remains an immense power that destroys the useless and nourishes the useful. Images of leaves, recurrently used in all five parts of the poem, imparts and organic unity to the poem. In the opening stanza, the wind drives away all the dead leaves — “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,/ Pestilence-stricken multitudes”. In the second stanza, the clouds are “earth’s decaying leaves”. In the fourth stanza, the image of ‘leaf’ reappears — “If I were a dead leaf thou mightiest bear” and “Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!” It again appears in the final stanza — “Drive my dead thoughts over the universe/ Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!”

In the poem, the images are constituted mainly by the use of figure of speech. Thus, the images of leaves symbolically represent something beyond their usual meaning. The destruction of the ‘pestilence-stricken’ leaves stands for the annihilation of the out-of-date social systems. The dry old leaves stand for old and useless thoughts that barricade the inauguration of new and revolutionary ideas. The wind symbolically representing a powerful force destroys the old, useless thoughts and preserves the new ideas represented by ‘winged seeds’. The image of the ‘winged-seeds’ implies the expectant social order beneficial to the mankind.

The second stanza, with the onset of the winter storms, produces images of violence, destruction and possession. The wind disrupts the usual order in a ‘commotion’ with ‘tangle boughs of Heaven and Ocean’ and the demonic figure of the Maenad is threatening. The dirge and vast sepulcher of this stanza are replaced in the third stanza by the images of clear water, light, balmy winds and a state of trance.
Other powerful images in the poem are image of thorns — “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” representing the hardships in life. The image of ghosts and enchanter appear early in the poem. The wind is compared with an enchanter and the decayed leaves with ghosts that run away from an enchanter out of fear. Colour images also appear in the poem in lines like “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red” and “With living hues and odours plain and hill”.

Shelley drew his images mainly from nature. He always had a keen eye for the moving objects in nature. His images are mainly kinaesthetic in nature. The images, in conjunction with the figures of speech, mould the meaning of the poem.

CONSIDER SHELLEY AS A POET OF HOPE WITH REFERENCE TO
HIS POEM “ODE TO THE WEST WIND”.
OR,
WRITE A NOTE ON SHELLEY’S OPTIMISM WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM HIS POEMS.

 Ans. Shelley was a born revolutionary and he had firm faith in the regeneration of mankind He was a visionary whose faith and optimism never dwindled. His motto of life was to liberate mankind from the tyranny of all types. He dreamt of a bright and radiant future. His constant aim in poetry was to bring about a glorious millennium —- a Golden Age in future. His “Ode to the West Wind” is a poetic manifestation of tile hope and optimism that he would nourish in the inner recesses of his heart.’,

In the poem “Ode to the West Wind”, Shelley presents the wind as a mighty, powerful force. The duality of the wind’s power is emphasized throughout the poem. Two contrasting aspects of the wind are underlined in the first three stanzas — its terrifying destructive power and its gentle fostering influence. It is simultaneously a destroyer and a preserver The wind destroys in order to create something new. It drives away all the dead leaves — “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,/ Pestilence-stricken multitudes” because they post obstacles to new_germination. The dry old leaves stand for old and useless thoughts that barricade the inauguration of new and revolutionary ideas. The wind symbolically representing a powerful force destroys the old, useless thoughts and preserves the new ideas represented by ‘winged seeds the second and third stanza Shelley describes the tumultuous impact of the West Wind in the sky and on the ocean)On the sky there is a deep commotion as the clouds are dispersed just like the decaying leaves on the ground with the approach of the West Wind.. There comes tempestuous storm from which “Black rain and fire and hail will burst out.” The west wind recreates havoc on the ocean-bed also. The Atlantic ocean cleaves itself into a deep chasm when the west wind raises high weaves on it. Even the sub-marine plants, flowers on the bed of the ocean tremble in fear. The West Wind is thus a cataclysmic force that effects a phenomenal change in the natural world. Shelley was attracted by this tremendous manifestation of the hidden power of natures He saw it as a symbol of the force of revolution that is necessary to change. The present life is a death like state—it is winter of discontent and despair. If we are to bring in a spirit of hope on this earth, we have to destroy the old world and create a new one on its wreckage.

In the fourth stanza, the poet seeks participation in the energy of the winch He expresses his ardent desire to accompany him in his mission of creating a new order of life but the agonies and bitterness of life — “heavy weight of hours” have repressed his qualities. He makes an ardent appeal to the wind to lift him like ‘a wave, a leaf, a cloud’. In the last section, he vehemently urges the west wind to inf use its vigour and power into him, so that he can play the “trumpet of prophecy” and render his massage to mankind. He wants to awake mankind from their “wintry slumber”. He expresses his ardent zeal for regeneration’s — “Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth/ Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!” Final manifestation of hope and optimism occurs in the last two lines – – “0, Wind,/ If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” This establishes Shelley as a poet of inspiration, hope and optimism who sees the rays of hope even through the worst condition.?

WHAT POETIC FORM AND DEVICES DOES SHELLEY USES IN HIS
POEM “ODE TO THE WEST WIND”?

Ans. The dramatic alliteration in line one, ‘Wild West Wind’, announces energy and force, which flows into the rest of the poem, emphasizing how wild and destructive this wind can be. Shelley creates a sense of movement, making the wind more effective, with imagery, such as ‘Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing’, ‘who chariotest to their dark wintry bed’ and ‘Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere’.

This poem is made up of five stanzas’, each one a sonnet of four tercets, with a concluding couplet. The tercets share the same rhyme scheme of abcz bcb cdc tied throughout, although the closing couplets don’t rhyme in each stanza. All stanzas end with an invocation, giving a pleading tone to the poem, as ‘hear, oh, hear’, ‘oh, hear’, ‘oh, hear’, ‘tameless, swift and proud’ and ‘can spring be fir behind?’

In the first three stanzas, Shelley uses series of images and metaphors to underscore the forceful aspect of the wind. Images and metaphors like “like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing”, “Pestilence- stricken multitudes”, “like a corpse within its grave” indicate destructive as well as fostering aspects of the wind. In the second and third stanzas, imagery and metaphors invoke the forceful natural aspects of the wind. Shelley uses powerful language and the tone is energetic. These first three stanzas are narrated in the third person, not belonging to any specific character, hut omniscient in that the speaker is able to recount the motivations of the wild wind, to tell us where it travels and what it destroys. The language of the fourth stanza changes the tone, giving a more sombre feeling to it. There also occurs a shift in focus. So long, the focus was on the wind itself. No’ the poet uses metaphors of nature to depict himself and his desires. It is narrated in the first person, with language such as ‘If I were a dead leaf and ‘If I were a swift cloud’. The concluding stanza is a continuation of the preceding one. Shelley’s use of imagery in the fifth stanza, uses metaphors of nature, begging for a renewal of his power.

Throughout the poem, Shelley employs enjambments, enabling the theme of the destructive wind to flow from one scene to another without hesitation, a poetic tool for enforcing the image of movement Examples of this are: lines 2 and 3 with ‘from whose unseen presence the leaves dead are driven’, lines 6 and 7 ‘Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed the winged seeds’, lines 21 and 22 ‘even from the dim verge of the horizon to the zenith’s height’ and lines 50 and 51 ‘when to outstrip thy skiey speed scarce seemed a vision’.

The poem “Ode to the West Wind” is comprised of terza rima sonnet stanzas (four tercets and a couplet). It contains interlocking rhymes with energetic enjambments that evoke the force that Shelley evokes, and provides the rush of assonance and alliteration, the repetitions that resembles tile wind. The first three stanzas convey the force of the wind on the earth; in the fourth stanza, the poet seeks participation in this energy and realizes his exclusion; in the fifth h( imagines, and prays for inspiration, to make his poetry a force aligned with the prophetic, life-bearing wind, bringing spiritual and possibly political rejuvenation.