Page 158 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Unit 14: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelley

• The speaker claims that the “level” Atlantic Ocean breaks itself into “chasms” for the Notes
West Wind.
• This is a poetic way of saying the wind disturbs the water, making waves, but it also
suggests that the ocean is subservient to the West Wind’s amazing powers.

Lines 38-42
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!
• In the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the different kinds of marine plants hear the West
Wind high above and “suddenly grow gray with fear” and thrash around, harming
themselves in the process.

• Once again, the speaker ends all these descriptions of the West Wind by asking it to
“hear” him.

Lines 43-47

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, only less free

Than thou, O Uncontrollable!
• The speaker begins to describe his own desires more clearly. He wishes he were a “dead
leaf” or a “swift cloud” that the West Wind could carry, or a wave that would feel its
“power” and “strength.”
• He imagines this would make him almost as free as the “uncontrollable” West Wind
itself.

Lines 47-51

If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,

As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seemed a vision;
• The speaker is willing to compromise: even if he can’t be a leaf or a cloud, he wishes he
could at least have the same relationship to the wind that he had when he was young,
when the two were “comrade[s].”
• When he was young, the speaker felt like it was possible for him to be faster and more
powerful than the West Wind.

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