SHELLEY’S ODE TO THE WEST WIND

 

                SHELLEY’S  ODE TO THE WEST WIND

One of the most famous romantic poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is known as a rebel like another romantic poet Lord Byron (1788-1824),  but with a difference. Byron attacked his enemies unmercifully. Shelley’s rebelliousness was based upon general humanitarian grounds, and his desire to regenerate mankind, then suffering from the evils of war. As a literary historian Edward Albert puts it, Byron’s wrath was based chiefly upon his resentment against his personal wrongs.  

Here is a brief extract from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind which expresses his desire for the regeneration of mankind in the highest poetry.

            Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is :

            What if my leaves are falling like its own !

            ‘The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

           

Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,

            Sweet thoughts in sadness. Be thou spirit fierce,

            My spirit ! Be thou me, impetuous one !

           

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth ;

And, by the incantation of this verse,

 

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind !

Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth

 

The trumpet of a prophesy ! O wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind.

                                    *********

G.R.Kanwal

17 August 2024