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Ode To The West Wind

Ode to the West Wind is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley addressing the wild and powerful West Wind. In three sentences: The poem asks the West Wind to carry the poet's words far and wide like leaves scattered by the wind, to awaken the earth with a message of prophecy; it sees the West Wind as both a destroyer and preserver who drives dead leaves away while bringing new life in the spring; and the poet hopes the wind might lift him up and carry his thoughts just as it moves clouds and waves, freeing his mind from the heavy burdens weighing it down.

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119 views2 pages

Ode To The West Wind

Ode to the West Wind is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley addressing the wild and powerful West Wind. In three sentences: The poem asks the West Wind to carry the poet's words far and wide like leaves scattered by the wind, to awaken the earth with a message of prophecy; it sees the West Wind as both a destroyer and preserver who drives dead leaves away while bringing new life in the spring; and the poet hopes the wind might lift him up and carry his thoughts just as it moves clouds and waves, freeing his mind from the heavy burdens weighing it down.

Uploaded by

doragreenissleepy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822


I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the
leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale,
and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintr!
bed The wing"d seeds, where the! lie cold and low, #ach like a corpse within its grave,until
Thine a$ure sister of the %pring shall blow &er clarion oer the dreaming earth, and fill
'(riving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues and odours plain and hill
Wild %pirit, which art moving ever!where* (estro!er and Preserver* hear, O hear+

II
Thou on whose stream, ,mid the steep sk!s commotion, -oose clouds like #arths deca!ing
leaves are shed, %hook from the tangled boughs of &eaven and Ocean, Angels of rain and
lightning there are spread On the blue surface of thine air! surge, -ike the bright hair
uplifted from the head Of some fierce .aenad, even from the dim verge Of the hori$on to
the $eniths height, The locks of the approaching storm/ Thou dirge Of the d!ing !ear, to
which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre 0aulted with all th!
congregated might Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere 1lack rain, and fire, and hail
will burst O hear+

III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue .editerranean, where he la!,
-ulled b! the coil of his cr!stalline streams, 1eside a pumice isle in 1aiaes ba!, And saw
in sleep old palaces and towers 2uivering within the waves intenser da!, All overgrown
with a$ure moss and flowers %o sweet, the sense faints picturing them+ Thou 3or whose
path the Atlantics level powers 4leave themselves into chasms, while far below The sea-
blooms and the oo$! woods which wear The sapless foliage of the ocean, know Th! voice,
and suddenl! grow gre! with fear, And tremble and despoil themselves O hear+

IV
5f 5 were a dead leaf thou mightest bear* 5f 5 were a swift cloud to fl! with thee* A wave to
pant beneath th! power, and share The impulse of th! strength, onl! less free Than thou, O
6ncontrollable+ 5f even 5 were as in m! bo!hood, and could be The comrade of th!
wanderings over &eaven, As then, when to outstrip th! skie! speed %carce seemed a vision*
5 would neer have striven As thus with thee in pra!er in m! sore need/ Oh+ lift me as a
wave, a leaf, a cloud+ 5 fall upon the thorns of life+ 5 bleed+ A heav! weight of hours has
chained and bowed One too like thee tameless, and swift, and proud/

V
.ake me th! l!re, even as the forest is What if m! leaves are falling like its own+ The
tumult of th! might! harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, %weet though
in sadness/ 1e thou, %pirit fierce, .! spirit+ 1e thou me, impetuous one+ (rive m! dead
thoughts over the universe -ike withered leaves to 7uicken a new birth+ And, b! the
incantation of this verse, %catter, as from an une8tinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, m!
words among mankind+ 1e through m! lips to unawakened #arth The trumpet of a
prophec!+ O Wind, 5f Winter comes, can %pring be far behind9

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