Poem analysis 2: Ode to the West Wind

Ode to the West Wind 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1795-1825)

First Movement

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s 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-striken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

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        About

This poem is mostly straightforward, speaking of how the wind blows and causes havoc in it's wake.

        Theme

There insn't much of a theme for a descriptive poem like this. If there were it would be along the lines of: "Death comes in the wind" as the poem describes clearly the darkness that the wind brings.

        Structure

This sonnet follows the Terza Rima, a style created by the poet Dante and is composed of four stanzas of three lines, then one stanza of two. Teza means three, and Rima is rhyme. So, it follows exactly what is says on the tin. The rhyme scheme goes aba cdc efe ghg ii , as if alternating. 

        Poetic Devices 

This sonnet is chock full of poetic devices. For example; the first line, "O wild west wind" is alliteration. It also uses Personification throughout the poem, describing the winds as if it were a person who was bringing with her darkness and death. There is also imagery, like in line four, that helps bring a picture of what would be a otherwise colourless picture. The final line has two (or just one, depending on your opinion) examples of assonance: Destroyer and Preserver as well as hear and hear. Finally, this poem rhymes: aba cdc efe ghg ii as previously stated.