Page 182 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Unit 14: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelley: Detailed Study

• The speaker compares his thoughts to the dead leaves; perhaps the West Wind can drive Notes
his thoughts all over the world in the same way it moves the leaves, and they’ll become
like a rich compost or mulch from which new growth can come in the spring. That way,
even if his thoughts are garbage, at least that garbage can fertilize something better.

Lines 65-67

And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
• The speaker comes up with another metaphor to describe what he wants the wind to do
to his thoughts, and this one isn’t about fertilizer. He describes his own words – perhaps
the words of this very poem – as sparks and ashes that the wind will blow out into the
world.

• The speaker himself is the “unextinguished hearth” from which the sparks fly; he’s a fire
that hasn’t gone out yet, but is definitely waning.

Lines 68-69
Be through my lips to unawakened Earth

The trumpet of a prophecy!
• The speaker returns to the metaphor of the wind playing him as an instrument, but this
time he describes his mouth as a trumpet through which the wind will blow its own
prophecy.

Lines 69-70

O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
• The speaker ends by asking the wind a question that seems very simple: “If Winter
comes, can Spring be far behind?”
• The symbolic weight that he’s attached to the seasons, however, makes us realize that
this is more than a question about the wheel of the year. He’s asking whether or not the
death and decay that come at the end of something always mean that a rebirth is around
the corner.
• He’s hoping that’s true, because he can feel himself decaying.

14.2 Examples of Figures of Speech and Rhetorical Devices

Stanza 1

Alliteration: Wild West Wind (line 1).
Apostrophe, Personification: Throughout the poem, the poet addresses the west wind as if it
were a person.

Metaphor: Comparison of the west wind to breath of Autumn’s being (line 1).

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