“Ode to the West Wind” is an ode written by P. B. Shelley in 1819 during a journey near Florence. He was going for a walk in a wood that skirts the Arno when a terrible and tempestuous wind and this experience gave him the inspiration for this ode.

 Right from the title the reader understands that the poetic form is an ode and it is about the wind that comes from the west. And he can suppose that this ode is due to a Shelley’s feelings after a windy day.

The ode is arranged into five stanzas. Each stanza is composed by four triplets and a final couplet, which in the first three stanzas is a refrain that invites the wind to hear this ode as if it was a prayer and is also used to empathise the scene. Every stanza has its peculiar function: the first one is about the effects of the wind on the ground, the second shows the effects on the sky, the third conveys the effects on the sea, the fourth recollects all previous elements and the final one is a request to the wind.

Reading the ode, the reader is able to read that words and rhetoric figures used by the poet aren’t simples and commons; oppositely he used high terms and many abstract content. Moreover the ode is shorter than first generation’s ballads, so it is the birth of a new generation of romantic poets.

The first stanza introduces the autumn wind as an unseen presence that drives the leaves fallen down from trees. They are yellows and hectic red and look like a pestilence-stricken multitude. They are droved to a wintry bed where they will stay since the spring brings them to a new life.

The final couplet is the hope that the wind that goes everywhere and has the power to preserve or destroy everything will hear him.

The second stanza is the closely description of the effects of the wind on the sky. He observes bits of clouds swept along by the wind as it has done with the leaves while a tempest. It is represented as a crowd of messengers and bringers of rain sent by some fantastic figure. In addiction to that the final couplet returns to remember to the powerful wind to hear this ode.

 The third one describes the scene of a windy day on Mediterranean Sea. The Sea is awaked by its summer calm when he is lulled by its river. The reflex became to be shocked and the violent wind shocks also the vegetation under the sea and it brings darkness with it on the Sea as in the Atlantic Ocean. Then the request to the wind returns as in the previous stanzas.

The fourth stanza shows to the reader Shelley’s feelings and impressions. He resumes previous figures and underlines the incredible wind’s power again. Moreover he expresses his intention to be like the wind: fierce, swift and proud.  

The final stanza is the prayer to the wind. Shelley will be influenced by the wind’s power and he hopes that his dead thoughts will be driven to a new birth that brings them all over the world to awake the mankind.

In my opinion this ode isn’t easy because Shelley uses an high definite language, but it is great because is a form of humility hope that something else can help you to reach your objectives, especially if you can recognize that who can help you is powerful and so important.