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Unit 14: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelley
Theme of Language and Communication Notes
At the end of “Ode to the West Wind,” the speaker betrays his deepest concern: the fate of his
ideas. He hopes that his words and thoughts will be spread throughout the world. He’s not
sure of the quality of his thinking, but at least it can provide a starting point for other thinkers.
Self Assessment
Choose the correct options
1. Where was Shelley born?
(a) Bee Hive (b) Rose Garden
(c) Field Place (d) Hill Place
2. “Pourest thy full heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art.” To which bird are these
lines addressed by Shelley?
(a) Raven (b) Nightingale
(c) Skylark (d) Cuckoo
3. Which text that Shelley wrote shocked the Oxford University where he studied?
(a) The Defense Of Poetry (b) A Declaration of Rights
(c) Ode to the West Wind (d) The Necessity of Atheism
4. “Poets are the ______________ of unapprehended inspiration.” according to Shelley.
(a) Sycophants (b) Hierophants
(c) Revealers (d) Seekers
5. In “Ode To The West Wind” what does Shelley call ‘leaves’?
(a) Green and purple seaweeds (b) Veined fringes
(c) Pestilence-stricken multitudes (d) Autumn’s eternal victims
6. “My name is ____________, king of kings:”- Who is this “king of kings”?
(a) Prometheus (b) Ozymandias
(c) Pan (d) West Wind
7. In 1822, which journal did Shelley publish along with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron?
(a) The Revolutionary (b) Atheism Redefined
(c) The Reformer (d) The Liberal
8. How is Shelley supposed to have died?
(a) He was assassinated. (b) He drowned in the sea.
(c) He died a natural death. (d) He died of consumption
14.9 Summary
• The speaker invokes the “wild West Wind” of autumn, which scatters the dead leaves
and spreads seeds so that they may be nurtured by the spring, and asks that the wind,
a “destroyer and preserver,” hear him. The speaker calls the wind the “dirge/Of the
dying year,” and describes how it stirs up violent storms, and again implores it to hear
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