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 revived the poem professor… Thanks a bunch 🙏🏻❤️
Thank you for the feedback. You are welcome!
wonderful job thanks a lot kind sir
You’re welcome! Thank you for the feedback. You can see my other poetry videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwI6PbYTLTM&list=PLzVb6yL_jY69EiXaYHcLdERHMUA7nub5u. Enjoy!
Thank you so much sir.You are so great.
I am from INDIA.
Thank you for the feedback!
thank you so much for your amazing explanation your better than my doctor at the university
Thank you for the feedback! I’m glad you found it useful. I retired from university life a few years ago, but I still love teaching, so I started making these videos.
Thank you very much! You are an amazing literature teacher!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
sir can you help me with my book question? it says “What qualities of the west wind are praised by the persona?” whatshould i answer? 😓
Well, first I suggest you go through the poem picking out all the different things Shelley says about the west wind. Then pick out the ones he specially seems to admire. Then try to identify some key words that sum up the qualities he admires. Any qualities that are repeated or described at length or paraphrased are likely to be relevant.
@anosensei thanks! i actually find it hard to understand the poem with the deep english words so I struggled a lot since english is not my first language 😅
I understand. Just as an example, he calls the west wind “wild” twice in the first part of the poem. Do you think he is complaining about the wildness of the wind or do you think he admires it?
Amazing analysis
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it.
Thank you so much Sir
You are welcome!
Your videos are so helpful, would it be possible if you could do an analysis on Shelley’s ‘Stanzas written in dejection near Naples’
I’m glad you find the videos helpful. I am very busy at the moment. Perhaps I’ll have a bit of time for it later on, but I can’t promise anything!
Hats off to you sir, thankyou for such a great analysis.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m glad you liked it!
Thank u so much sir ♥️
You’re very welcome!
The spiritual depth of this poem is brilliant and timeless🙏 thanks for the analysis.
You are welcome! Yes, it is a fine poem!
unforgettable lesson .thank you sir.
You are welcome!
Stunning, well-presented, articulate analysis!!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it!
When im reading this poetry because of modulw..i cant relate or can’t find the mood of this poetry
The poet William Carlos Williams famously said, “If it ain’t a pleasure it ain’t a poem”. No matter how “great” it’s supposed to be, no matter how famous, if it doesn’t speak to you, then for you it isn’t a poem. Find something else.
@anosensei sorry i dont mean to offend you..what im trying to say is ita hard for me to relate and understand it deeper because its my firstime to read poetry and i didnt studi in formal highschool ..so i dont have much idea about poetry.and deeper english so i just want to know what is the mood of this ode to the west wind..but i appreciate some poetry especially if i know some english grammar or about poetry mood n tone ..
@sasukegutszerolevialucod6927 No, no, I’m not offended. I’m totally serious! If you’re not getting anything out of this poem, try another one. Not every poem is to everyone’s taste.
I didn’t realize you were asking me to say more about the tone; I thought you were just saying you didn’t get it.
I think if I had to use one word it would be “exhilaration”. I can just see Shelley out there on some windy hillside shouting out, “Be thou me, impetuous one!” It’s like he doesn’t care a damn how strong the wind is, or if it’s cold or if it brings rain with it. He just loves the sheer energy and exuberance of it.
@anosensei ahh ok thankyou..its because this is only the one need to analyze,its part of module of my niece haha..one of the question is what are the two mood on this poem ..and i also dont understand the other question ,what is the wind called in shelley’s poem ?and my answer is preserver and destroyer but im not sure ..😅
@sasukegutszerolevialucod6927 OK! Well, like almost every poem ever written, there is a tension between positive and negative elements here. The positive side is expressed through a sense of uplift; the poet wants to be raised up and carried by the wind:
If 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, and share
The impulse of thy strength
And the negative side is expressed through a sense of being downcast. The contrast is brought out most clearly in these two lines:
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
I suspect this is the answer the questioner is looking for, but the question is reductive. Why only two moods? We could answer that the poem encapsulates the spirit of destruction of the old, sweeping away the dead leaves, etc., on one hand, and regeneration, new life, the “azure sister of the Spring”, on the other. Or we could say it is about oppression and revolution. And so on.
As for what he calls the wind, well, he calls it a lot of things. “Destroyer and preserver”, sure, but also “uncontrollable”, “”Wild spirit”, “Spirit fierce”, “impetuous one”…
Again, the question is reductive. It implies that there is only one possible answer, but there are many.
If the teacher is just looking for one answer, and ticking the box for those who give that answer, then I would fault the teacher, or the examination system, or whatever. That’s no way to teach poetry. But if these questions are being asked as a way of promoting discussion, offering students the chance to share their ideas and see the poem from different points of view, then that’s fine.
Sir Grt lecture. Thank you very much
You’re welcome!
Excellent sir
Thank you! I hope it was useful for you!
This is my first Bysshe Shelley poem and I feel he’s going to be a favourite. Your analysis was very insightful and made me love the poem even more!
Thank you for the feedback. I hope you find many more poetic treasures!
Sir, I am your big fan
Ha! Thank you!!
Explanation 👌👌👌👌
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it.