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| Ode to the West Wind, by Percy B. Shelley
Poem Interpretation Important Vocabulary chariotest - "est" is added to the verb stem "chariot" to indicate the 2nd person sing. after the subject "thou" thine azure sister of Spring - the east wind destroyer and preserver - the west wind is considered the destroyer for driving the last signs of life from the trees; it is considered the preserver for scattering the seeds which will come to life in spring shook - used for shaken, it's an arcaism tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean - the horizon line angels of rain and lightning - the clouds Maenad - priestess of Bacchus (God of wine from Greek mythology) the locks of the approaching storm - again the clouds thou dirge of the dying year - the west wind whose - reffering to the vapours where he lay - "he" is the Mediterranean coil - the noise of the tide Baiae's Bay - Bay of Naples' west side intenser day - the water translucency is more intense than the daylight so sweet, the sense faints picturing them - it's such a wonderful sight that one feels fainting in describing it Atlantic's level powers - the Atlantic waves while far below (...) tremble and despoil themselves - the plants at the bottom of the sea also feel the influence of the wind, which announces the change of the season thy skiey speed - ethereal speed as thus with thee in prayer in my sore need - praying to you in this way one too like thee - referring to Shelley himself Interpretation This ode is one of Shelley's best known lyrics. The poet describes vividly the activities of the west wind on the earth, in the sky and on the sea, and then expresses his envy for the boundless freedom of the west wind, and his wish is to be free like the wind and to scatter his words among mankind. The ode is a lyrical poem of some lenght, dealing with a lofty theme in a dignified way, and originally intedend to become songs. There are three types of English odes: 1-Pindaric ode: follows the original pattern by the Greek poet Pindar 2-The Cowley: style ode, named after Abraha Cowley, English poet of the 17th century 3-The Horatian ode: named after the Roman poet Horace Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is of the Horatian type, with stanzas of uniform lenght and arrangement. Here, Shelley employed the "terza rima", an Italian mesure used for the first time by Dante, in his work "La Divina Comedia". Here we find a variant of the original pattern: five 14 lined stanzas of iambic pentameter, each of them containing four tercets and a final couplet. The rime scheme is aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ee. Carla Diana Cardoso, for Study of Texts - English, Translation course at ISLA Copyright by Didi Cardoso. This file is the author's own work. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. You may not reproduce it in any way without written permission from the author. |
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