Page 173 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Elective English–II

Notes dying year,” and describes how it stirs up violent storms, and again implores it to hear
him. The speaker says that the wind stirs the Mediterranean from “his summer dreams,”
and cleaves the Atlantic into choppy chasms, making the “sapless foliage” of the ocean
tremble, and asks for a third time that it hear him.
• The speaker says that if he were a dead leaf that the wind could bear, or a cloud it
could carry, or a wave it could push, or even if he were, as a boy, “the comrade” of
the wind’s “wandering over heaven,” then he would never have needed to pray to the
wind and invoke its powers. He pleads with the wind to lift him “as a wave, a leaf, a
cloud!”—for though he is like the wind at heart, untamable and proud—he is now
chained and bowed with the weight of his hours upon the earth.

• The speaker asks the wind to “make me thy lyre,” to be his own Spirit, and to drive
his thoughts across the universe, “like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth.” He
asks the wind, by the incantation of this verse, to scatter his words among mankind,
to be the “trumpet of a prophecy.” Speaking both in regard to the season and in regard
to the effect upon mankind that he hopes his words to have, the speaker asks: “If
winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
• The speaker of the poem appeals to the West Wind to infuse him with a new spirit and
a new power to spread his ideas. In order to invoke the West Wind, he lists a series
of things the wind has done that illustrate its power: driving away the autumn leaves,
placing seeds in the earth, bringing thunderstorms and the cyclical “death” of the
natural world, and stirring up the seas and oceans.
• The speaker wishes that the wind could affect him the way it affects leaves and clouds
and waves. Because it can’t, he asks the wind to play him like an instrument, bringing
out his sadness in its own musical lament. Maybe the wind can even help him to send
his ideas all over the world; even if they’re not powerful in their own right, his ideas
might inspire others. The sad music that the wind will play on him will become a
prophecy. The West Wind of autumn brings on a cold, barren period of winter, but
isn’t winter always followed by a spring?

13.5 Keywords

Incantation : A series of words said as a magic spell or charm

Chasms : A deep fissure in the earth, rock, or another surface
Prophecy : A prediction of what will happen in the future.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (a) 2. (b) 3. (a) 4. (a)

13.6 Review Questions

1. What are some of the things the West Wind could represent?
2. Is the speaker in “Ode to the West Wind” a representative of all mankind, or he is
unique or special in some way?

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