Life's Not a Breeze

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Recommended: stanza analysis of ode to west wind

It has been said that each and every one of us experience different seasons of life throughout our time here on Earth. One might experience times of deep despondency and a lack of faith, which stay true during the winter months, but then be rejuvenated by the promises of new life and beauty that the spring brings. The poem “Ode to the West Wind,” by Percy Shelley is an irrefutable representation of these seasons of life and what the speaker does in order to ensure that he is delivered from a desperate time. Shelley’s poem paints a melancholic picture of a man who has completely lost his way in life and in his time of utter hopelessness seeks guidance from the West Wind. The speaker acknowledges that the Wind is one of the most powerful forces of nature and he pleads with the Wind to just listen to his cries in hopes that others will be effected by what he is feeling and exclaiming. Shelley utilizes an anomalous structure and rhyme scheme, picturesque imagery, mythological, geographical, and biblical allusions, and many instances of figurative language throughout his poem in order to evoke precise emotions from the reader and elucidate the importance of understanding that tomorrow is a new day.

Shelley constructed his poem in a very unique way that is unrecognizable to most. “Ode to the West Wind” is a collection of five cantos which are the Italian poetry equivalent of chapters (Shmoop Editorial Team). These so-called “chapters” each contain fourteen lines of four-three line stanzas and a one-two line couplet signifying the end of the present canto. The rhythm throughout the poem is clearly iambic pentameter, which, along with the fourteen lines in each canto, resembles that of an English sonnet. There is a diversion, however, t...

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...n experience that every individual must face at least once in their lives. Everyone holds the desire to know if there is really something more to life and once one comes to the realization that hardships in this life are inevitable, they reach their full potential and become more exceptional people than before they entered into the turmoil.

Works Cited

Cummings Guide Editorial Team. “The Divine Comedy: A Study Guide.”

Cummingsstudyguides.net. n.p. n.d. Web. 5 April 2011.

Gruenwald, Christine. “The Hindu God Brahma: Introduction on Brahma, Member of the Most

Famous Hindu Trinity.” Sanatansociety.org. Sanatan Society. n.d. Web. 3 April 2011.

New International Version. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers & Zondervan Publishing House,

1984.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “Ode to the West Wind Analysis.” Shmoop.com Shmoop University,

Inc., n.d. Web. 3 April 2011.

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