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Conclusion on how Shelley uses her themes in ode to the west wind
Conclusion on how Shelley uses her themes in ode to the west wind
Conclusion on how Shelley uses her themes in ode to the west wind
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The Ode to West Wind Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is a lyric poem. The poem addresses the west wind as the powerful force and the speaker asks the west wind to disseminate his words and thoughts throughout the world. The speaker narrates the vicissitude of nature and how the west wind changes the ground, the sky and the ocean. With rich imagination which is the reflection of Shelley's "defence of Poetry," the poet modifies the west wind, being both a destroyer and a preserver, as a symbol of revolution, an impetus of the rejuvenation in both human and natural world. Then, the speakers complains about the circumstances of his life, pleads to accompany with the west wind and states his prophecy about future. In the first Stanza, the west wind is personified and the speaker sketches the spirit of the west wind in autumn. Those dead leaves are blown away by the west wind as if those leaves are ghosts encountered by a wizard. "Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes," the description of those leaves not only illustrates its scary color and ill-condition but also represents decadent things or old fashioned concepts which is too strong and widely spread so they can not be easily removed through the word "Pestilence-striken". Then, the west wind collects seeds in its Chariot and deposits them in the earth until they are awakened by the spring's clarion. The narrator also included the description of seeds, comparing them in winter and spring: 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 clarion2 o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) ... ... middle of paper ... ...h which helps make the connection between humanity and nature since they both are constantly trying to reinvent themselves. When one scatters "ashes" it's at one's death and that person becomes one with the earth. When one scatters "sparks" it is these sparks that create new fires of creation and destruction. The last two stanza exemplified Shelley's definition on the role of a poet. He argues that "A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of anotherand of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is imagination." In the "Ode to the west wind," he acts accomplished his goal by representing the pain and pleasure of human and even nature. He resorts to imagination in order to accomplish his goal and full exemplified his role as a poet.
In this poem, Frost includes his fear of the ocean and exaggerates its destructive power. As Judith Saunders stated that “The first thirteen lines have depicted an ocean storm of unusual force, and through personification the poet attributes to this storm a malign purposefulness” (1). Frost provided human characteristics on the storm to help prove his point that the ocean has bad intentions and its only purpose is to hurt him. Frost does not describe the waves as a result of unfavorable weather; he explains them as having a malignant intention to destroy the world. This poem revolves around the forces of nature and could be included in the long list of nature themed poems by Robert Frost.
...here are similar aspects to each writer's experience. Engaging the imagination, Ramond, Wordsworth and Shelley have experienced a kind of unity; conscious of the self as the soul they are simultaneously aware of 'freedoms of other men'. I suggested in the introduction that the imagination is a transition place wherein words often fail but the experience is intensified, even understood by the traveler. For all three writers the nature of the imagination has, amazingly, been communicable. Ramond and Wordsworth are able to come to an articulate conclusion about the effects imagination has on their perceptions of nature. Shelley, however, remains skeptical about the power of the imaginative process. Nonetheless, Shelley's experience is as real, as intense as that of Ramond and Wordsworth.
The first three stanzas invoke the West Wind as a driving force over the land, the sky, and the ocean and implore it to “hear” the poets call for it to perform its duty. (14, 28, 42) In the first stanza the wind is characterized as a “Destroyer and preserver” (14) which drive dead leaves and the “wingèd seeds” (7) to the closing season’s burial and the coming spring’s rebirth. Within the recurring second and third stanzas Shelley extends the leaf image to additional earthen objects thus creating an epic metaphor throughout the poem.
Walt Whitman’s hard childhood influenced his work greatly, he was an uneducated man but he managed to become one of the most known poets. Whitman changed poetry through his work and is now often called the father of free verse. Especially through Leaves of Grass he expressed his feelings and sexuality to world and was proud of it. He had a different view at life, his hard childhood, and his sexuality that almost no one understood made him introduce a new universal theme to the world. Almost all critics agree that Walt Whitman was one of the most influential and innovative poet. Karl Shapiro says it best, “The movement of his verses is the sweeping movement of great currents of living people with general government and state”.
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
Whitman establishes a direct connection between the lyrical and the reader to get to each one of us. The power that the poem has and having Whitman writing it, rests on the ability of the author to separate himself amongst thousands, almost as a wonderful schizophrenia which allows you to view the world from certain points of view and understand it better than anyone.
age. The poem later personifies Autumn as "sitting careless on a granary floor" (14). Granaries hold grain that has already been harvested and threshed. It is in the last phase of its existence before its "death" by consumption. Likewise, old age is the last phase of human existence. Also, a common characteristic of old age is baldness. In the poem, autumn's hair is "soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" (15). To winnow something to is eliminate the unnecessary parts, like chaff from grai...
“We pluck and marvel for sheer joy. And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs…” (14-16). This emphasis on nature reflects the respect and connection to the natural world the culture was trying to convey in their poetry. The colorful and illustrative descriptions of the physical world are indicative of the mindset and focus of these poems. Namely the fact that they were concerned with the world around us and the reality we experience as opposed to that of abstract concept of god or the supernatural as seen in other historical texts. This focus on nature is important because it sets the context in which the major theme of loss and separation originate from. In this poem the poet chooses to emphasize the passing of time in the choice of comparing the two seasons. Spring, in which life begins a new, and fall, in which the leaves begin to fall off and die. The poem reads “And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs- Those are the ones I hate to lose. For me, it is the autumn hills” (15-18). This juxtaposition of these two
”To Autumn” is an ode written by John Keats on the 19th of September 1819. While walking near Winchester along a river, Keats became inspired to write the poem. The Rest of his other odes were completed in the spring of 1819. John died on the 23rd of February 1921 at the age of 25, just a year after the release of “To Autumn”. However, throughout his life he inspired many poets, but most notably Percy Shelly. In mourning, he wrote the elegy “Adonais” for Keats.”To Autumn “is his final poem and many have said it is his best. Keats use of imagery takes the reader on an adventure through the scenes and sounds of autumn. He achieves this by his use language, imagery, tone and structure. This is also what creates the mood and consequently allows him to challenge the notion that music is usually associated with spring. Thus, in this essay I will show how he challenges this belief, by looking at his use of imagery, tone and form. In addition I will look at what his influences were and the context in which he wrote the poem.
The wind seems to be a symbol of hope. Hope that he has entrusted in the form of nature. A hope that maybe he can trust that there is no such thing as a ghost that is lurking around tapping on his widows and chamber doors. The narrator looks for a way to make the wind the source of his problems instead of the potential cause that he is having repercussions from a broken
Many famous writers have careers spanning over decades, though one English Romantic poet was able to achieve fame in his short career of only five years. John Keats was a poet with a remarkable ability to perceive the world around him; an ability that resonated throughout his works. Although John Keats lived an unfortunately short life, he is considered one of the most important figures of the English Romantic movement because of his use of Romantic literary devices and themes of love and loss in poems such as "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be."
where they lie cold and low/ Each like a corpse within its grave, until/ Thine
Unlike the neoclassical writers who favored the safe and calm nature of pastures and meadows, Shelley favored the dark unpredictable and intimidating side of nature. For this reason he wrote about the west wind (autumn wind) in his poem Ode to the West Wind. The west wind comes after the summer time and announces the coming of autumn and then goes into the winter. The wind is violent and dark; it harkens death and suggest the upcoming winter. It’s not a happy wind. This violent wind is something that would have been feared by neoclassical writers and would have never been written about. Since Romantics didn’t like to use rhyming couplets, Shelley wrote Ode to the West Wind as a lyrical Ode. It consist of 14 lines and follows the rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc ded ee. Shelley writes a lot about melancholy in Ode to the West Wind a trait commonly found in Romantic writers. He expresses his growing sadness and unhappiness throughout the poem. Romantic writers were fascinated with the idea of Revolution, because the American Revolution had just occurred and the French Revolution was an ongoing event. In Ode to the West Wind some ideas of revolution can be seen, where Shelley is praising the wind for being different and going
The poem has set a certain theme and tone but no definite rhyme. In this poem, the poet explores into a thought of the self, the all-encompassing "I," sexuality, democracy, the human body, and what it means to live in the modern world. He addresses that the human body is sacred and every individual human is divine. Hence, Whitman was known for writing poems about individualism, democracy, nature, and war.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.