The winds are "driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing" (4) and the poet's thoughts are like "winged seeds" (7) of each passing season. The poet writes, "Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; / Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!" (13-4). Critic Jeanine Johnson notes that "Ode to the West Wind" "returns to the idea that human development and nature follow parallel cycles. If the seasons correspond to the ages of human life, spring being a time of new birth is childhood, summer is young adulthood, autumn is middle age, and winter being the time nearest death is old age" (Johnson). Each stanza represents a stage of life that is seen as if it were an aspect of nature and when examining the stages of life, one cannot overlook death. Johnson contends, "Human death is permanent. The poet tries to counter his sadness at the thought of dying with an optimistic vision of spreading his words among mankind" (Johnson). Just as Keats wished to fly away with the nightingale, Shelley, too, wishes to become a part of the experience that is surrounding him. Critic Ian Lancashire notes, "Poets prophesy, not by consciously extrapolating from past to present, and from present to future, with instrumental reason, but by capitulating to the mind's intuition, by freeing the imagination." (Lascashire). "Ode to the Western Wind" demonstrates these extremes and brings them together in perfect harmony. The poem explores the positive and the negative aspect of life while being inspired by nature. The sky, the clouds, streams, and leaves are points of inspiration as the poet contemplates his life through the prism of the seasons. Shelley's poem represents the heart of the Romantic Movement in that it attempts to explore and experience all aspects of life and death with an open eye. The poetic eye, if you will, is open and looking into life as art. Just as Keats, Shelley reaches from within and without to experience the fullness of life. The elusive wind represents life itself.
The Romantic writers were filled with a passion that dares to reach beyond the...
Being alive was not good enough -- to appreciate life fully, one must be open to the smallest aspects of life and allow those aspects to influence experience. Desire to attain a greater experience through simple appreciation of life, color, sights, sounds, and emotion drive Romantic writers to pursue excellence through art. John Keats and Percy Shelley provide compelling examples of the poetic experience in ways that are decidedly Romantic in approach and form. "Ode to a nightingale and Ode to the western Wind explore an experience that is outside the poet's realm of being. A simple birdsong and an autumn breeze become prompts that bring each poet to a place that is surreal and sublime. Through their ability to break free from the constraints of traditional poetic methods, they were setting trends that opened the door for a new and provocative movement. Life is something to be experienced and the smallest aspects of it can be the most powerful if we allow ourselves to pay attention to them. These Romantic poets demonstrate exactly how to accomplish this with simple observations that allow them to transcend their immediate surroundings.
Works Cited
Lasaschire, Ian. "Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ode to the West Wind." Representative Poetry Online.
Site Accessed May 13, 2009. < http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1902.html
Johnson, Jeanine. "An overview of Ode to the West Wind." Poetry for Students. 1997. GALE
Resource Database. Site Accessed May 13,
2008.
Keats, John. "Ode to a Mockingbird." English Romantic Writers. Perkins, David, ed. New York:
Harcourt Jovanovich Brace. 1967.
Shelley, Percy Blythe. "Ode to the West Wind." The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Vol. II. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1986.
Wentersdorf, Karl. "The Sub-Text of Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale.'" Keats-Shelley Journal.
Vol. XXXIII. 1984. GALE Resource Database. Site Accessed May 13, 2009.
