ODE TO THE WEST WIND

"Ode to the West Wind" has three levels of interpretation:
1st level the arrival of the cold wind as an atmospheric agent.
2nd level the wind seen as revolutionary air bringing new ideas of freedom and a new society.
3rd level the wind meant as the poet's inspiration which leads him to write his works.

Analysis

The poem consists of five cantos written in a combination of Dante's terza rima and the Elizabethan
sonnet. In fact, each canto consists of four tercets (ABA, BCB, CDC, DED) and a final rhyming
couplet (EE). It is written in iambic pentameter. It begins with three cantos describing the wind's
effects upon earth, air, and ocean. The 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 make him its companion in its
wanderings. He asks the wind to take his thoughts and spread them all over the world so that the
new generations are awoken with his ideas.

Throughout the "Ode" there are meaningful examples of musical devices, such as alliteration,
assonance and repetition, and language devices such as inversion and run-on line, while the ‘Wind'
is a clear personification. Also the poem contains a great number of metaphors, some of them are
explained in the ‘Analysis' below.
One more thing that should be mentioned is that the first canto is about the earth, the second canto
is about the air and the third canto is about the water; the reader now expects the fire, but it is not
there. This leads to a break in the symmetry of the poem because the reader does not meet the fire
until the fifth canto. This choice can be justified with the insertion of the turning point in the fourth
canto which can be considered like a prayer or confession of the poet not addressed to God.

The poem contains both an optimistic message and a prophecy which helps the reader to think

about the term ‘poetry' itself. It shows that rebirth is something that can be fulfilled through

spiritual growing.

The last few lines of the poem underline the poet's thought and bring the topic of regeneration and

decline to the heart in a very explicit way.

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 bearer of evil images. The third canto

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. In the fifth canto every natural element and

the poet have been turned into symbols through a series of similes and metaphors.