Ode to the West Wind

by Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1820 · 2 min. læsetid · 70 linjer

Kort fortalt

“Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a poem about a powerful autumn wind and a speaker’s wish to share its renewing force. It begins with dead leaves fleeing like ghosts and winged seeds carried into winter beds, where they wait for spring. The wind then drives storm clouds across the sky and disturbs both the dreaming Mediterranean and the Atlantic’s depths. Turning inward, the speaker remembers youthful freedom and asks the wind to lift him out of suffering. Finally, he asks to become its musical instrument and to have his words scattered like sparks from a hearth. The closing question connects winter’s arrival with the hope of spring, suggesting that loss and exhaustion may prepare the way for new life.

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves deadAre driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,Each like a corpse within its grave, untilThine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

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 spreadOn the blue surface of thine aery surge,Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim vergeOf the horizon to the zenith’s height,The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing nightWill be the dome of a vast sepulchre,Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphereBlack rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear!

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreamsThe blue Mediterranean, where he lay,Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,And saw in sleep old palaces and towersQuivering within the wave’s intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowersSo sweet, the sense faints picturing them! ThouFor whose path the Atlantic’s level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far belowThe sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wearThe sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear!

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less freeThan thou, O uncontrollable! If evenI were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speedScarce seemed a vision; I would ne’er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowedOne too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

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 though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universeLike withered leaves to quicken a new birth!And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearthAshes and sparks, my words among mankind!Be through my lips to unawakened earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Hvad det betyder, linje for linje

Linje 1 til 14: The speaker addresses the autumn wind as an unseen spirit that scatters dead leaves and carries seeds into winter shelter. Images of ghosts, disease, and graves make autumn seem deadly, but the seeds await spring’s awakening. Calling the wind both destructive and preserving establishes the poem’s central connection between endings and renewal.

Linje 15 til 28: The wind’s power moves upward into the sky. Clouds resemble falling leaves, while the coming storm looks like wild, streaming hair. The speaker imagines night as a huge tomb covering the dying year. Rain, lightning, and hail turn that funeral scene into a display of violent energy, followed by another appeal for the wind to listen.

Linje 29 til 42: The wind also commands the sea. The Mediterranean appears as a sleeper dreaming of old buildings beneath shimmering water, while the Atlantic opens into deep chasms. Underwater plants tremble as though they recognize the wind’s voice. These personifications extend its reach from peaceful coastal beauty to the frightened ocean depths.

Linje 43 til 56: The speaker turns from describing nature to expressing personal need. He wishes he could travel with the wind as a leaf, cloud, or wave, and recalls feeling nearly as free in boyhood. Now suffering and the passage of time weigh him down. His urgent plea to be lifted contrasts his present weakness with the wind’s freedom.

Linje 57 til 70: The speaker asks the wind to play him like an instrument, as it plays the forest. His sadness could become music, and his seemingly dead thoughts could nourish new life. Leaves give way to ashes and sparks as images for spreading his words. The final question makes seasonal change a basis for hope without claiming that renewal has already arrived.

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Tre spørgsmål til eftertanke

How does the wind’s treatment of leaves and seeds connect destruction with preservation?
What changes when the speaker turns from describing the wind to asking for its help?
How do the images of music, scattered sparks, and spring shape the poem’s final hope?

Gratis i 3 måneder

200.000+ klassikere. Alle formater, gratis at starte.

e-bøger og 15-minutters resuméer samt enhver bog trykt til kostpris, også i stor skrift.

Start gratisFornyes hvert år · Opsig når som helst

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