Westwind Essay

489 Words2 Pages
Ode to the West Wind Percy Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is a portrayal of Shelley’s rebellious motto towards the ideals and values during the Romantic era and his desire to escape from these customary beliefs reflected by the ways of nature. The poem begins with Shelley describing the West Wind as the “breath of Autumn’s being” (1, I) and “from whose unseen presence the leaves dead/Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing” (2-3). The West Wind is described as the force or “breath” that creates autumn’s atmosphere. The fallen dead leaves are driven by this force, resembling ghosts fleeing. The leaves represent the ideals and values of the era in which Shelley lived, and the West Wind symbolizes the driving force, with which Shelley hopes to seek freedom. With words such as “death” and “ghosts”, the reader is able to sense Shelley’s feelings towards the ideal viewpoints of England during the time. It is quite clear Shelley perceives such ideas to be of much unimportance, if not useless, by using this death imagery. He continues his denunciation of the idealistic beliefs in the next lines of the poem by using strong imagery of colors. “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red” (4) all give a sense Shelley, however, does not lose faith for he immediately mentions the West Wind "Who chariotest"The winged seeds, where they lie cold and lowEach like a corpse within its grave" (6-8). Likewise, Shelley aspires to achieve the same purpose with his ideas and thoughts. Whereas autumn"tms colors are sickly and disease-like, spring"tms colors give the notion of brightness and livelihood with the word "hues". This is, again, a further elaboration of the concept of spring as the symbol of rebirth. Although the imagery given may seem dark, Shelley is really trying to convey that the seed actually is only dormant, rather than dead, beneath the harsh winter cold. In
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