Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the greatest of lyrists and his 'ode to the west wind' is one of which most exquisite lyrics. The personal element and musicality that characterized any lyric are stronger in an ode. Shelly's poem is notable for all these feature. It may easily be described as an ode per excellence. The poem also illustrates the characteristics of a romantic poetry such as imaginative quality, symbolism, melancholy note, subjectivity, revolutionary sprit and above all, musicality. It exhibits the myth-making facility of the poet as well as his power off completely identify himself with the object described. As C.H. Herford rightly observed in 'the age of Wordsworth'(1897)-"the greatest of this lyrics, ode to the west wind, combines with the highest degree of this imaginative quality the to other characteristics notes of Shelley's lyrics-personal despondency and prophetic passion.
The west wind is invoked at the very beginning of the poem and the happy epithet that the poet chooses for the wind is 'wild'. the first stanza of the poem is concerned with the West winds activity on the earth. The wind is the tumultuous and omnipresent spirit of autumn. It has a dual role of the 'destroyer' and the 'preserver' It drives the the pestilence-stricken multitudes 'of the dead leaves and chariots the winged seeds to their dark wintry bed where they wait for their future resurrection during spring. The stanza is redolent with the promise of rebirth.
The second stanza of the poem describes the activities of the west wind in the sky: the effect of the wind upon the formation of clouds. There is the composition of the winds Swift current with a stream of water. The clouds are supposed to be the foliage of heaven and ocean and are swept off by the west wind like real dead leaves shaken into a river. The cloudy locks of the imminent storm spread on the waves of the 'billowy wind 'are again compared to the disheveled hair of a frenzied female worshipper of Bacchus. Again, the wind is regarded as the the singer of the dirge of the Opening year to which the dense vapours of the dark autumn night build sepulchral vault. Winter rains are a prelude to the fertility that returns with the spring.
The effect of the wind upon water is describe in stanza III. Not only the life of the land, the life in the sea also affected by the wintery torpor. The west wind is here the force which agitates the ocean waves. It is the awakener of the blue Mediterranean from his summer dreams.it cleaves the glassy surface of the Atlantic and the vegetation at its bottom is ruffled by the sound that heralds its approach.
The fourth stanza is the poets invocations to the west wind for strength. The poet is eager to share the impulse of the West winds force and prays to it for help. The poet wants the winds to fill him with strength and to lift him as a wave, a leaf and a cloud. This is the moment of his urgent need as he is in dire misery-,"I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" he is chained by a heavy weight of hours which also crushes him once indomitable spirit.
The concluding stanza is an impassioned plea that with the endless energy of the wind the poet's glowing prophecy of reawakened earth and man's Victory over evil will be broadcast to mankind. There is a fine comparison of the poet himself to the autumnal forest, when the trees become apparently dead during the advent of winter. He compares his thoughts to the dead fallen leaves which, by concealing and fertilizing the seeds, help the efflorescence of a new life in spring ("quicken a new birth"). So, he hopes that his winged wards will help out the New bright ideas and impulses, which, he thinks, are hidden in humanity, to blossom forth into beautiful activities. the ode concludes with the cry which, as stop ford broke observes, is prophetic of that unconquerable hook for humanity-
"O wind,
IT winter comes, can spring be far behind?"
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