西风颂 英文赏析

Ode to west wind

Introduction

The west wind was widely adopted in S helley’s poetry. From the whole poem, we can see it describes the poet’s love for the nature.At the same time, the poem expresses the hope that its words will inspire and influence those who read or hear it. The author praised the west wind as both destroyer and preserver.

This essay contains four parts; firstly it will talk about the structure of the west wind. The second part is the information of the language or the diction of the poem. The third part discusses the rhythm of the poem. The last part is about the images of the poem which conveys the hidden feeling of the author

Structure

It consists of five stanzas. Ode to the West Wind can be divided in two parts: the first three stanzas and The last two stanzas .The three stanzas describes the wind's effects upon earth, air, and ocean. The last two stanzas are Shelley speaking directly to the wind, asking for its power, to lift him like a leaf, a cloud or a wave and make him its companion in its wanderings.

In the first stanza, the poet adopted the color contrast tactic and described the s cene when west wind swept autumn--"Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red", in dicating that turbulent west wind blew down leaves and spread the seeds into land aga in, waiting for the arrival of spring. In the sentence, people could imagine a fading sce ne full of fallen leaves. However, when the spring comes, colors will turn soft and bri ght"colors and fragrance will be spread over mountains and plains". The poet proved himself to be "color" player, in several lines of whose poems, the changing process of the nature, from dull to prosperous, was perfectly presented. Finally, the poet names t he ubiquitous west wind as both "destroyer and protector," which includes certain und erstanding that west wind break the old world and create a completely new world. Acc ording to Maharishi, "The nature of life is to grow," west wind is the power of develo

ping. The second stanza is predominantly concerned with the violence and terror of air storms, and it begins with a description which expresses the powerful spectacle of turbulence, which brings air (Heaven) and water (Ocean) together as one powerful force. The power of the West Wind is reflected in what it can do——taking control over the clouds in the sky. The poet says the west wind drives clouds along just as it does dead leaves after it shakes the clouds free of the sky and the oceans

In the third stanza, the view was switched from the high sky to the ocean. Shel ley mainly described how the west wind woke up the ocean and caused panic among s ea pants. Prior to the arrival of the west wind, the sea was as calm as if it has slept for a whole summer. Moreover, it also saw the "ancient palace and pavilions" in its dream . The readers were also able to see reflection of the pavilions the clear water and the ri pples formed a scene with full-bodiedly beauty. Then, the sea was also embedded with also personality, who, prior to the arrival of west wind, actively split itself and expose d the sea plants which hid deeply at the bottom of the sea. This peculiar description se ems to be completely broad imagination of the poet, while also complies with the law of nature.

In the above three stanzas, the poet described how the west wind swept from t he sky to the sea. However, in the fourth stanza, the poet focused on himself and wish ed that the wester wind could took him away, like the way it did to leaves, clouds and ripples in the sea. The poet was eager to float in the world freely. In order to demonstr ate speed of the west wind and the poet's eagerness, the poet used a series of the same sentence pattern and formed a clanging and floating rhythm of the poetry. Diction

Stanza 1

Shelly uses “O wild west wind”, the 3 “w” indicates a state of blowing, the west wind blows continuously and breaks through all the barriers. Besides, the “w” is also a powerful sound. The whole poet uses the west wind as the subject instead of “I”, the observer. In fact, it is Shelly who hears the west wind.Thus, Shelly wants to

emphasize the role of the west wind. Compared with the power of the west wind, human beings are too inferior. The word “unseen” means invisible, it means although the west wind can’t be seen, but we can feel it from the different colors of the dead leaves. It conveys a sense of horror. “are driven”, passive voice, the word “drive” or “flee” indicates power. “Yellow”, ”black”“pale”“hectic red” all are colors of the dead leaves. The west wind blows the autumn leaves off the tree. “the winged seeds”, which means many plants, including trees, perpetrate themselves by seeds borne on the wind. It shows the speed of the west wind. The word “clarion” means a kind of trumpet whose note is clear and shrill. After people died 12 days, the angel will blow the trumpet and judge on people. In Shelly’s eyes, the west wind is charming. At the end of the first stanza; Shelly expressed his strong emotion in the short sentence: “Oh, hear!” “oh” expresses his excitement and admiration of hearing or “seeing” the wild west wind.

Stanza 2

“Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed”, the poet describes the clouds just playing the same role as leaves in the last section. “angels of rain and lightning”, the poet regards rain and lightning as angels, which symbolize good things.in other words, it’s the revolution storm, through describing them and the bright hair, we know the power of the wind.

The night that’s falling as the storm comes is going to be like a dark-domed tomb constructed of thunderclouds, lightning, and rain. The image here is of the darkened sky similar to a vast cathedral's interior, with the solid clouds forming the roof, and further images of death and also of the apocalypse: "vast sepulchre", "dying year", etc. All these "dark" and "fearsome" expressions create the power of the West Wind." Congregated "means "condensed" . "Congregated might/Of Vapours "means" The clouds are so condensed that they carry a great force". The word "congregated" and "solid" vividly and explicitly explains the state of vapours, which makes the power reflected behind understandable and reasonable.

In the last sentence, the verb "burst" creates a scene of spurt, which comes from a long-term accumulation and condensed energy. With the use of these verbs, we can easily form the image of fierceness and sense the potential yet great power of the West Wind.

Stanza3:

Leaving the earth and the sky behind, the poet pays attention to the blue Mediterranean, which presents a quiet, easeful circumstance. “lull” makes somebody relaxed and calm. Shelly uses lull to show that the ocean is also powerful and usually not peaceful except that he is asleep. Even though the ocean is full of power, he is still afraid of the west wind's force. Shelly chooses coil to show how gentle the streams are and the ocean has a sound sleep. “For whose path the Atlantic's level powers, Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below”. “Path” here means to make a path for the west wind. “Chasms” means a deep crack or opening in the ocean. Two w ords vividly describe the force of the west wind. Suddenly grow gray, the blue Mediterranean and crystalline streams. The colors of the ocean turn blue and crystalline to gray. It is important to mention that the ocean grows grey the minute he recognizes the sound of the west wind. The three words---quivering, tremble and despoil, Through the three words, Shelly makes a contrast to show the great power of the uncontrollable west wind, especially using despoil which means to destroy. Structure and Rhyme Scheme

Each stanza of the poem has three tercets and a closing couplet. In poetry, a tercet is a unit of three lines that usually contain end rhyme; a couplet is a two-line unit that usually contains end rhyme. Shelley wrote the tercets in a verse form called terza rima, invented by Dante Alighieri. In this format, line 2 of one tercet rhymes with lines 1 and 3 of the next tercet. In regard to the latter, consider the first three tercets of the second stanza of "Ode to the West Wind." Notice that shed (second line, first tercet) rhymes with spread and head (first and third lines, second tercet) and that surge (second line, second tercet) rhymes with verge and dirge (first and third lines,

third tercet).

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 20

Of some fierce M?nad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge.......

All of the couplets in the poem rhyme, Shelley unifies the content of the poem by focusing the first three stanzas on the powers of the wind.......

Image

The most important image he created in this poetry is the “west wind”, which plays the roles of destroyer and preserver.

Inhe first canto, Shelley painted a picture that the west wind was sweeping “th e leaves dead” and blowing the seeds into the earth by using metaphor and symbolism . The west wind is compared to the invincible “breath of Autumn’sbeing” in nature. B esides that, the west wind in spring was assimilated to the “Thine azure sister of Sprin g”. Combining with the background at that time, we can infer that “the leaves dead” r epresents British reactionary class. “Pestilence-stricken multitudes” insinuated the stat e of dying reactionary class. Wild spirit signified the power of revolutionary, which de stroyed the rotted old stuffs and supported the living new stuffs at same time.

In the second canto, Shelley focuses on the images of air to fully describ e the majestic west wind, such as cloud, rain, and lightning. “Angels of rain and lightn ing” is howling for coming wind and rain, inferred that west wind brought the storm o f revolution by employ personification. The images, such as, Black rain, fire, and hail

he employed all signify the immense destructive power of west wind. The view turnin g from the ground to the sky implies the revolution is coming soon.

In the third canto, the west wind is steering out to sea. Here, the blue Mediterr anean symbols the rules of the time. While they are dormant in the “crystalline stream s” and in the “azure moss and flowers”, the palaces and towers are quivering. In sharp contrast to the static state, the dynamic state implies the status of reactionary class is hanged by a thread. Combining the west wind with ocean, wave and old palaces, Shell ey anticipate that the west wind would cleave through the waves, and all the palaces a nd towers symbolized the rulers of the time would be going to the end.