Page 179 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Elective English–II

Notes night that’s falling as the storm comes is going to be like a dark-domed tomb constructed
of thunderclouds, lightning, and rain.
• The poet ends by asking the West Wind once again to “hear” him, but we don’t know
yet what exactly he wants it to listen to.

Lines 29-32

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his chrystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ’s bay,
• The speaker tells us more about the West Wind’s wacky exploits: the Mediterranean Sea
has lain calm and still during the summer, almost as though on vacation “beside a
pumice isle in Baiæ’s bay,” a holiday spot for the ancient Romans. But the West Wind
has woken the Mediterranean, presumably by stirring him up and making the sea choppy
and storm-tossed.
• The Mediterranean is personified here as male.

Lines 33-36

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!
• During his summertime drowsiness, the Mediterranean has seen in his dreams the “old
palaces and towers” along Baiæ’s bay, places that are now overgrown with plants so that
they have become heartbreakingly picturesque.

Lines 36-38

Thou

For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
• The speaker claims that the “level” Atlantic Ocean breaks itself into “chasms” for the
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!

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