Author: Ano Sensei
Format: Video
Subject Matter: change, nature, nature poetry, power, prophetic poetry, revolution, revolutionary verse, the sublime, wind
Related content:
Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" - In-depth analysis of the symbolism, techniques and core meaning.
0:00 Introduction
0:11 Canto 1: Textual analysis
1:16 Canto 1: Context and comments
2:58 Canto 2: Textual analysis
4:37 Canto 2: Context and comments
5:28 Canto 3: ...Textual analysis
6:33 Round-up of cantos 1-3
7:20 Canto 4: Textual analysis
8:54 Context and comments
10:12 Canto 5: Textual analysis
11:08 Concluding comments
This video explains how Shelley describes the West Wind in his poem, focusing on its wild and unseen qualities and its role in nature. I discuss how the wind drives away dead leaves, carries seeds, and is connected to the changing seasons, providing a detailed description of the imagery used. This is an English story about poetry, exploring the rhythm and language of the poem.
This is a companion video to my dramatized reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem (https://youtu.be/IOV5LqecTOI).
I have made in-depth videos on Keats's Odes (https://tinyurl.com/anokeats), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" (https://tinyurl.com/anokubla), Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" (https://tinyurl.com/anotintern) and many others. Subscribe/join and get the best poetry analysis videos on YouTube!
A Spanish-language version of this video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyBAt7xENHg%5D.
And here is a version in Italian: https://youtu.be/M8pPpb1T1nI
You can also see the reading and analysis combined as a playlist (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzVb6yL_jY68kvKQYjfOBXwK3NZyy0pCj).
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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-stricken multitudes ! O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The wingèd 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, O hear!
Thou on whose stream, ‘mid the steep sky’s commotion,
Loose clouds like earth’s 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 zenith’s 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 with burst: O hear!
The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seemed a vision―I would ne’er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O! 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.
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are 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,
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?Show More
230 Comments
You are too good…
Ha! Thank you!
I wish my teacher instructed as clear as you. Thanks for the quality content Sensei 😀
You’re very welcome! Let me know what you’d like a video on and I’ll see if I can come up with the goods!
@anosensei I would love to see videos about Wordsworth’s ”Preface to Lyrical Ballads , The Mad Mother , John Clare’s To A Dead Tree or Keats’ ”Ode on a Grecian Urn”. I hope I gave you an idea. Thanks a lot and stay safe !
@caner0735 Well, I can deliver right away on one of those. Here’s the Keats! https://youtu.be/QOmQNP26Lak
The preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Now there’s a thought! (To think I once owned a first edition of it, too…)
@anosensei Awesome, just what i needed! You are the best. I also took a look at your older nature videos and liked them very much. Have a great day!
@caner0735 Thanks! You too!
Wonderful explanation! Thank you, sensei.
You are most welcome! I’m glad you liked it.
@anosensei Love from India, sir. 💗
Ibsee ur torch ire locks looser…
thank you very much sir, I enjoyed it.
You’re welcome!
No winter then no spring
Exactly! But I don’t think he just loves the winter because the spring will follow; I think he loves it for its wildness, its primal power. He loves nature in its entirety, not just the comfortable parts of nature.
Thank you so much, you’re a blessing💕
You’re very welcome!
Thank you👍
You are welcome!
A brilliant interpretation of the poem. Thank you.
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much that was an incredible analysis! You’ve got yourself a new subscriber! Thanks again!
Thank you for the feedback! I’m working on other things at the moment, but I’ll be getting back to poetry videos in the next month or so…
Thank you so much for this sir, enlightening!
You are very welcome! I’m glad you found it useful.
thank you very much 😄😊
You are very welcome!
I love it
I’m glad!
Thank you so much Sir
You are very welcome!
What is the role of wind in the poem “ Ode to the West Wind?
I think that’s a large part of what the video is about! Perhaps you should watch it more carefully…
Such a beautiful poem!! Thanks for making it more clear in order to appreciate the precious lyrics
You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much sir.
You are welcome!
The best analysis I have seen so far. Your passion is motivational!
Thank you! I hope you will be an enthusiastic lover of poetry throughout your life!
What is the two mood of this poem though?im new about this poetry ..and ita one of my niece modules..inreally cant find the mood of this poem
This is just great and lovely. Thank you very much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Sir I have another question but not regarded this poem its about a novel of Samuel Richardson Pamela
The question is that Richardson s Pamela attempts to forge a personal identity that balance the conflicting claims of authority. Examine the novel in the light of above statement.
Sounds like a homework essay question! You probably need to read a few essays on the topic, such as this one:
http://www.classicnovels.org/pamela.html
Or this:
https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/34568/1/KALPAKID.pdf
Sir I am not getting this question so sir can you please help me out what points should I write. It would be very helpful
@shoppingandfashionideasins7199 Well, just write about the men who try to control her and the way she has to negotiate her life under the control of those men. And go to regular online study guides; they’ll give you some leads, I’m sure.