英美文学欣赏The Analysis of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind

Central China Normal University Course Paper for Undergraduates

Title The Analysis of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind School (Department)School of Foreign Languages

Major Tourism Management

Minor English Language and Literature

Grade2010

Name 吴思凝

Student Number 2010214419

Teacher Xiao Xiong

Score

December, 2012

The Analysis of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind

Abstract

Ode to the West Wind is one of the most famous lyric poems written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the great British romantic poet in 19th century. In this poem, the poet in order to show the wonder of the sky, the land and the ocean, he used a lot of rich imaginations and new allegories. In his writing, Shelley relied mainly on symbolic features. The west wind is not only the nature’s wind, but also the wind of revolution. In the surface, Shelley described the natural wind. Actually, he expected the storm of revolution through the west wind. By using symbolic features, the west wind becomes more impressive and deep-going.

Actually, these are based on the specific historical period and the environment. Through analysis on the background of this poem, this article mainly analyzes from some major aspects like its structure characteristics and figures of speech, especially analyzes the poet’s emotions. Above all, in the poem, Shelley praised the west wind, expressed his desire to get rid of the reality and to en joy freedom, and showed his optimism on human’s future.

Key Words: Shelley; Ode to the West Wind; analysis; appreciation

1. Introduction

Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the most talented lyric poets in English literature. He has been called “One of the best artists of us all” by William Wordsworth, and Byron praises him “Without exception the best and least selfish man I ever knew”. So we can see that he was one of the outstanding poets in the poetic world, and this era is known as the romanticism period.

The romanticism is an important branch of literature which thoroughly manifested the social characteristic of British during its period, and symbolized for the people’s request through literature (Wang Ting, 2011:224). In the history of literature, romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophy theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experiences (Wang Xuefang, 2012:224). So the intimate relationship between literature and society was clearly displayed. The romanticism developed extremely very fast in British, we can see the essence of romanticism reflected specific situation of that period and the needs of society.

Ode to the West Wind is one of masterpiece poems of Shelley, written in 1819. This poem has five parts, respectively in the form of a sonnet. At this time, the poet Shelley lived in Italy，and was at his peak of writing. In the early 19th century, scientific socialism did not born, and the counterforce from feudal nobles and the capitalist class were still very powerful. So the poem unavoidable has the circumlocutory and sad tone. As a pioneer of socialism thought, Shelley showed his optimism on the prospects of revolution and human’s future all along, he believed that the justice is sure to overcome the evil. Generally speaking, the rhythm of the poem is severe and unyielding.

Above all, we can know that his poem is said to be the reflection of Shelley’s freedom and the spirit of the age. Shelley created“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being” by the combination of his own life and the wild wind. It is fully true that the west wind is the destroyer as well as the preserver. It is the magnificent sections and chapters that cry out the rhythm of lives and the dance of souls. So we can realize the theme, Shelley’s west wind is as a spirit th at can destroy every creature in autumn in order to revive in the springtime (Wang Ting, 2011:224).