The second generation of Romanticism

The second generation of Romanticism is represented by three relevant poets: P.B. Shelley, John Keeds and Lord Byron.

All the representative poets of the second generation died young and far from home, which means they left England, with which they were no satisfied.

They capped most of the characteristic of the Romanticism poetry of the first generation but expressed their feelings with a different mood.

The first theme to which they were faithful was the theme of Nature as you can see in the "Ode to the West wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Ode to the West wind

The first element that the intelligent reader notices is that here is no longer in front of a ballad. As a matter of fact, he or she will realize that another very typical form of poetry of Romanticism is the Ode, a very difficult complex and dignified form of poetry, generally addressing an object, a situation of a person in a high dignified language, using abstract concepts and references generally sending back to classical art.

As the word itself suggests, an Ode heavily realise on the phonological level since it implies a listener.

In this specific poem the Ode is addressed to the West wind that is to that wind that comes from the West and generally brings with it rain.

From analyzing the layout the reader understands that the poem consists of five sections each performing a definitive function.

The reader can also realize that the first three stanzas end with a refrain. The refrain has the task to create an empathic effect in the reader. (oh, hear!) à the exclamation mark makes the role of emotions particularly important, a typical feature of Romanticism.

In the first stanza P.B. Shelley conveys the effects of the West wind on the Earth and namely on the deadly leaves.

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

In the third stanza the effect of the wind on the sea and namely on the waves.

The fourth stanza has the task to re-organize and drawn together all the previous elements.

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

From the poetical point of view the Ode shows to the reader that the poet uses his own variant of Dante's terza rima ending each stanza in the fashion of the England or Shakespeare's sonnets.

•F    First stanza: Shelley watched the windy sky from a wood beside the Arno.

The West wind - the very essence of the Autumn - was driving the    dead but multicoloured leaves along. Two images bring the scene to live; the leaves ar3e like ghosts, pursued by an enchanter, they are like a great crowd of people fleeing, panic-stricken, in time of pleig.

•F    Second stanza: here Shelley observes more closely the effects of the wind on the sky.  He sees bets of detached the clouds being sweat alone like leaves and behind them, streaming up from the Horizon, streaks and trails of clouds which he later compares to locks off these clouds are angels (in the sense of messengers) of the rain and lightning that will come at the high fall. 

•F     Third stanza: Shelley visualizes how the wind disturb the typical calm of the Mediterranean Sea personified as a languid form "willed by ......... streams" and reflecting "old palaces and towers" but reflecting them, lazily like a person asleep (in this lines the violent energy of the previous stanza has ceased) àsoft consonance and following cadences have replaced the strong harsh consonance, and streamer rhythms.

The wood and the tone changed again when the poet pictures how the West wind tore charms in the Atlantic Ocean, so violent that in the depths of the sea, the vegetation shook as with fear and shad it "sopples foliage".

•F     Forth and fifth stanzas: in these stanzas Shelley is concerned with his own emotional and quasi-philosophical reaction to the scene. He draws together the dead leaves of the first stanza and the waves of the third. They represented the desired for the cessation and oblivion that occurs so frequently in his poetry.

The yearning for swift liberty that the clouds have, and, his longing for the power that waves have, so that he could combat the things he want to destroy.

He feels he has lost his boyhood's freedom, when everything seem possible to him, and that the passing of time has tamed and enslaved.