1、A1Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)Ode to the West WindA2 A man,to be greatly good,must imagine intensely and comprehensively;he must put himself in the place of another and of many others.The pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.The great instrument of moral good
2、 is the imagination;and Poetry strengthens the faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man,in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb.Percy Bysshe ShelleyA3Ode to the West Wind:Notes Written in the Autumn,1819,and published in the following year,this poem has become one of the most
3、popular and best-known of Shelleys verses.In a note Shelley outlined the circumstances behind the poems making:A4 This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno,near Florence,and on a day when the tempestuous wind,whose temperature is at once mild and animating,was collec
4、ting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains.They began,as I foresaw,at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain,attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions.Ode to the West Wind:NotesA5 O wild West Wind,thou breath of Autumns being,Thou,from whos
5、e unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven,like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,Yellow,and black,and pale,and hectic red,Pestilence-stricken 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
6、 sister of the Spring shall blow Her clarion oer 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,O hear!A6 Thou on whose stream,mid the steep skys commotion,Loose
7、 clouds like earths decaying leaves are shed,Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,Angels of rain and lightning:there are spread On the blue surface of thine airy surge,Like the bright hair uplifted from the head Of some fierce Maenad,even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zeniths
8、 height The locks of the approaching storm.Thou dirge Of the dying year,to which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,Vaulted with all thy congregated might Of vapours,from whose solid atmosphere Black rain,and fire,and hail will burst:O hear!A7 Thou who didst waken from his summe
9、r dreams The blue Mediterranean,where he lay,Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,Beside a pumice isle in Baiaes bay,And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the waves intenser day,All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet,the sense faints picturing them!Thou For wh
10、ose path the Atlantics level powers Cleave themselves into chasms,while far below The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear The sapless foliage of the ocean,know Thy voice,and suddenly grow grey with fear,And tremble and despoil themselves:O hear!A8 If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;If I w
11、ere a swift cloud to fly with thee;A wave to pant beneath thy power,and share The impulse of thy strength,only less free Than thou,O uncontrollable!If even I were as in my boyhood,and could be The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,As then,when to outstrip the skyey speed Scarce seemed a vision;I
12、 would neer have striven As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.Oh!lift me as a wave,a leaf,a cloud!I fall upon the thorns of life!I bleed!A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed One too like thee:tameless,and swift,and proud.A9 Make me thy lyre,even as the forest is:What if my leaves are
13、 falling like its own!The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep,autumnal tone,Sweet though in sadness.Be thou,Spirit fierce,My spirit!Be thou me,impetuous one!Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth;And,by the incantation of this verse
14、,Scatter,as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks,my words among mankind!Be through my lips to unawakened earth The trumpet of a prophecy!O,Wind,If Winter comes,can Spring be far behind?A10O wild West Wind,thou breath of Autumns being,The West Wind is a manifestation of spiritual or superna
15、tural energy,associated with breath,respiration and inspiration,with pneuma and anima,the Holy Ghost or Spirit,the spirit of life itself.This is important in a stanza which contains so many references and allusions to death and decay,reaffirming the energy and vitality of the west wind.Apart from th
16、e alliteration it is also worth noting the capitalisation of West Wind in the poem.In typically Romantic fashion an abstract quality or aspect of Nature is personified and addressed in the poem,such that it appears divine or god-like,or as an expression of the divineA11Thou,from whose unseen presenc
17、e the leaves deadLeaves here refer to trees and the wind-borne seeds,but the phrase also carries associations with paper(leaves from books?),the withered leaves(and dead thoughts)referred to in stanza 5,which are driven across the universe by the power of the wind.The leaves here are dead and fall t
18、o the Earth,a recurrent theme in this stanza,but there they may give rise to new life.A12Are driven,like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,Helps build up the sense of death,and also life after death,which is brought about by Autumn,and by the west Wind.There are a number of images in this stanza whic
19、h help build up this sense of death,haunting and the sepulchre,such as Pestilence,dark wintry bed,cold and low,corpse within its grave,emphasizing the West Winds quality as a harbinger of Death.Emphasizes the supernatural power of the West Wind,holding the observer spell-bound,but remaining invisibl
20、e.Is the Wind here but the expression of this invisible and supernatural power,rather than the force itself?The reference to enchantment anticipates the next line and the references to the Pestilence-driven multitudes,hypnotised by the dance of Death and unable to resist its power.It is also worth n
21、oting that enchantment originally meant incantation,the singing or weaving of a spell,like the violent noise made by the wind itself.A13EnchanterGhostsA14Yellow,and black,and pale,and hectic red,Pestilence-stricken multitudes:O thou,Who chariotest to their dark wintry bedTo carry or steer,but with p
22、ossible associations of transport to the Underworld.Note that in this stanza there is recurrent emphasis on the Earth,as opposed to the Air in Stanza 2 and Water/Sea in Stanza 3.See also the line like a corpse within its grave,2 lines on.The colours of the leaves swept from the trees,but possible al
23、so a reference to the colours of the worlds races,swept away by the forces of Change and Destruction at work throughout the world,i.e.not just in Europe.The word hectic here means feverish,with its related associations of frenzy,energy and writhing,picked up in the next lines reference to Pestilence
24、,the Plague which destroys whole communities.A15The winged seeds,where they lie cold and low,Each like a corpse within its grave,untilThine azure sister of the Spring shall blowBorne by the air,these seeds fall to the earth and lie dormant,not dead,until awakened by the clarion call of Spring.azure
25、refers to the clear blue of the cloudless skies of Spring,but the phrase as a whole relates to the gentle west wind of Spring,more maternal than Autumns wind.At this point in the stanza there is a distinct shift in mood,anticipating the gentler and more pastoral time of Spring,with a noticeably more
26、 dream-like,soft and gentle mood.A16Her clarion oer the dreaming earth,and fill(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)With living hues and odours plain and hill:i.e.,the trumpet call,a traditional pastoral motif,perhaps associated with the Resurrection,but here associated with the pastoral i
27、mage of the shepherdess summoning her flocks,the wind-borne seeds springing into buds.bright and cheerful after the drabness and death of WinterA17Wild Spirit,which art moving everywhere;Destroyer and preserver;hear,O hear!The stanza ends with a final couplet which returns us to the sense of the Win
28、d as wild and ever in motion,after the brief respite of Spring described in the previous four lines.The emphasis here on moving everywhere might suggest that the Wind,or spirit behind the wind,is continually in motion in all created nature,and not just in this one Mediterranean location,in other wor
29、ds,the winds of change.The Wind possesses these two attributes,coupled also with its role as Creator.In Hindu mythology the three principal gods are Siva(Destroyer),Brahma(Creator)and Vishnu(Preserver),and it is significant that Shelleys poem invokes all three gods as manifested in the one abstract
30、force of(or within or behind)the West Wind.The phrase neatly expresses the ambivalent attitude which Shelley feels towards the Wind.A18Picture of Percy Bysshe ShelleyA19Thou on whose stream,mid the steep skys commotion,Loose clouds like earths decaying leaves are shed,Shook from the tangled boughs o
31、f Heaven and Ocean,in other words,the flow of the wind or air.This stanza is predominantly concerned with the violence and terror of air storms,and it begins with a description which expresses the powerful spectacle of fractocumulus turbulence,which bring air(Heaven)and water(Ocean)together as one p
32、owerful force.Note the use of the phrase decaying leaves,which continues on from the reference to the leaves of Stanza 1.A20CommotionA21Angels of rain and lightning:there are spreadOn the blue surface of thine airy surge,Like the bright hair uplifted from the headPossibly a reference to messengers a
33、nd heralds of violent thunderstorms and waterspouts,but helping also to build up the atmosphere of supernatural energies and forces suggested later in the stanza.A22Of some fierce Maenad,even from the dim vergeOf the horizon to the zeniths heightThe locks of the approaching storm.Thou dirgeThe Maena
34、ds were female follows of the Greek god Dionysus,the god of wine and wild revelry,who were observed to be possessed with the spirit of frenzy and excess.Here Shelley draws on the associations of this classical reference to create a vivid impression of the dancing Maenads,their hair streaming out and
35、 up into the air,likened to the water raised by the waterspouts,a further image of demonic possession.a mournful lament for the dead.Here Shelley seeks to emphasize the terrifying darkness of the storm scene,with its darkness and associations with deathA23MaenadA24Of the dying year,to which this clo
36、sing nightWill be the dome of a vast sepulchre,Vaulted with all thy congregated mightOf vapours,from whose solid atmosphereBlack rain,and fire,and hail will burst:O hear!The image here is of the darkened sky similar to a vast cathedrals interior,with the solid clouds forming the roof,and further ima
37、ges of death and also of the apocalypse:vast sepulchre,dying year,etc.A25The West WindA26Thou who didst waken from his summer dreamsThe blue Mediterranean,where he lay,Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,At the beginning of this third stanza there is an apparent change of mood and tone,as
38、the poem recalls the mood both of Summer,and of older aristocratic civilisations now buried beneath the Mediterranean waters.The connection between Summer and older political and social orders,the political implication of the poem,is that of the West Wind itself,which Shelley typifies as acting at f
39、irst below the water,and now on its surface.In the first part of the stanza the emphasis,however,is on the sensuous and luxuriant,in phrases such as lulled and sleep.A27Beside a pumice isle in Baiaes bay,And saw in sleep old palaces and towersQuivering within the waves intenser day,An area west of N
40、aples,a notoriously volcanic area,(hence the reference to pumice),and a former tourist resort in Roman times.In 1818 Shelley had taken a boat trip in the Bay and observed the ruins of its antique grandeur standing like rocks in its transparent sea under our boat.As the Roman town had been renowned f
41、or its luxury,immorality and even cruelty Shelley uses the image of the now underwater parts of the resort as a symbol of an older aristocratic order,overgrown with moss and flowers,and levelled by the Atlantics power:Shelley here introduces a reflection on the futility and transitoriness of human a
42、uthority when set against the forces of nature,manifested in phenomenon such as volcanoes and tempests.A28pumice isleA29All overgrown with azure moss and flowersSo sweet,the sense faints picturing them!ThouFor whose path the Atlantics level powersCleave themselves into chasms,while far belowThe sea-
43、blooms and the oozy woods which wearThe sapless foliage of the ocean,knowThe West Wind has had its origins in the Atlantic,and Shelley suggests here the impact of the Wind as its effects reach across Europe to the Mediterranean.The political implications,in terms of waves of revolution sweeping east
44、wards across the continent,are clear:the Atlantics influence is a levelling one,breaking down the social divisions brought about by tyranny and injustice.Alternatively,even the Atlantic is whipped into chasms by the force of the wind,so it is inevitable that the Mediterraneans waters will do so also
45、.A30Level powersA31A ChasmA32Thy voice,and suddenly grow grey with fear,And tremble and despoil themselves:O hear!Shelley comments here The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists.the vegetation at the bottom of the sea,of rivers,and of lakes,sympathi
46、zes with that of the land in the change of the seasons,and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it.In the context of what has preceded them,these lines suggest that even the older aristocratic Roman order had to recognise the inevitability of its fall under the forces of time and o
47、f nature.Yet again the West Wind is typified as both agent and harbinger of radical and violent change.Within the stanza as a whole these closing lines radically disrupt the mood of calm and sensuality created in the first eleven lines or so.Despoil here refers to the loss of leaves.Shelleys referen
48、ce to the underwater trees losing its leaves echoes the earlier references to the loss of leaves in the first two stanzas,which is picked up and drawn together in stanzas 4 and 5.A33A34If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;A wave to pant beneath thy power,
49、and shareAt this point there is a break in the poem,a radical shift of argument and a pulling together.Shelley likes himself,hypothetically,to a leaf,a cloud and a wave,subject to the force of the West Wind,and asks to be borne aloft with it:he may be talking about inspiration or enthusiasm,both wor
50、ds which are derived from the sense of being filled with air,inflated,rising above experience and age.A35The impulse of thy strength,only less freeThan thou,O uncontrollable!If evenI were as in my boyhood,and could beThe comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,As then,when to outstrip the skyey speed
