And, by the incantation of this verse,
      Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth                                                                                               Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!                                                                                         Be through my lips to unawakened earth

The trumpet of a prophecy!

Ans.  The quoted lines occur in the celebrated poem “Ode to the West Wind” by the great Romantic poet P. B. Shelley. The poet here urges the forceful West Wind to act as the trumpet of his prophecy to regenerate humanity.

In Shelley’s Opinion the earth is “Unawakened” because mankind is still ignorant and does not realize that it can built a better world of peace and happiness. The poet asks the wind to speak through his mouth to the human society which has so long defied him and has wallowed in the mire of degradation. He implores the West Wind to scatter his words to the earth which is still buried beneath old conventions, customs and ideas. Just as sparks and ashes from a burning hearth are carried away by the wind, so his words too would be conveyed to the world. For Shelley, the West Wind is not only a natural phenomenon affecting changes in the natural world. It is his symbol for regeneration, a vehicle of his revolutionary romanticism. In the poem, he equates his poetry with the West Wind. As the wind is a transforming power in nature, so can his poetry be a transforming power intellectually and poetically.