I.Fattori

ODE TO THE WEST WIND

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

"Ode to the West Wind" is organised into five parts, each one with a definite function in the economy of the text. The rhyme scheme in each canto is fixed (ABA,BCB,CDC,DED) and a final rhyming couplet (EE). It's written in a iambic pentameter.

Firsts three cantos describing the wind's effect upon earth, air and ocean, instead, last two cantos consist in Shelley speaking directly to the wind , asking for its power, to lift him like a leaf or a cloud and spread them all over the world so that the new generation are awoken with his ideas.

In the first stanza P.B.Shelley conveys the effects of the West Wind on the earth and namely on the death leaves.

In the second stanza the poet conveys the effects of the wind on the sky and specifically on clouds.

The third stanza is an invocation to the wind, so that the intelligent reader may wonder why the poet makes an invocation to the wind.

The language employed in the "Ode" is highly figurative: the first two cantos contain images of violence, cold, hardship and death; in short, the West Wind is beaver of evil images.It describes images of peace and serenity disturbed only by the coming of the West Wind which threatens to disturb the peaceful life.

The fourth canto introduces the poet who wishes to be identified with the Wind that is the Symbol of freedom.