Ode to the west wind, analysis

Ode to the west wind, analysis.

The poet provides the landscape: he tells us where the poem takes place. The poet was observing a strong wind near Florence, the beginning of a storm.
It is an autumnal wind that will be a destroyer but at the same time a preserver. The poet tries to describe a phenomenon that he saw and uses the wind to justify his poetic ideas.

Leggi anche Analisi della poesia Ode to the west wind

Interpretation of the wind:
1) The poet is thinking about a wind that he really saw when he was near Florence. In the stanzas there are the effects of the wind:
a) in the 1st stanza it is a wind that moves the leaves and the winged seeds. The wind is described while it is moving on the land.
b) In the 2nd stanza the context is the sky. The wind frees the clouds as with the leaves.
c) In the 3rd stanza it is a wind that moves the seas; first of all the Mediterranean and then the Oceans.
d) In the 4th stanza the poet introduces his person and the 2nd if clause to express his wish to be like the leaf, the cloud and the wave.
e) In the 5th stanza the poet is making an invocation: he asks the wind to be his instrument.

Leggi anche Ode to the west wind: traduzione

2) “West” can stand for France. Shelley is not a Fan of the French Revolution but some ethical values of freedom and justice are essential for him. The “west wind” can stand for the wind of a change against a totalitarian system, the society.
3) The wind can stand for poetry. What the poet hopes is to change the world thanks to his words. This justifies the position of the author (trumpet of a prophecy).