Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
ODE TO THE WEST WIND
Analysis of the first two sections page 173
Just considering the title the reader may understand the ode to be about the west wind, which is an autumn wind; it sweeps away all the rests of the past season.
In the first section the poet addresses the wind analyzing its effects on the Earth.
Here you can find a metaphorical level: the west wind is the essence of the autumn wind.
The wind is personified and you can find an alliterative sound and an echo effect.
The wind is charged with a positive connotation.
There is a simile: like a ghost and the reader may create a mental picture considering the imagines given by the speaking voice.
We are in autumn and leaves fall down from trees: they become mud and are yellow, brown or red.
Another simile is like a corpse within its grave.
Spring is the season of regeneration, she calls all nature to be alive again; spring is a female character.
In the first section you can find the expression of sense language.
At the end of the first section you can find a rhyming couplet which creates an echo effect.
The couplet presents an oxymoron (destroyer and preserver) that represents the unity of opposites: you need to create unity.
The second section presents the effect of the wind on the sky.
You can find some classical semantical references.
The adjective wild refers to something that you can not control just using your rationality.
To describe the effect of the wind, the poet uses a simile: like earth's decaying leaves are shed, shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean.
Sky has broken his balance because of wind.
Here you can easily find the idea a violence of nature.