ODE TO THE WEST WIND…. beautiful poem….must watch

ITALIAN RHYME SCHEME – TERZA RIMA (third line)

• Structure: in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, the lines are in groups of three, and the middle rhyme of one set of three becomes the outside rhyme of the next set.
• Rhyme scheme: ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, EE
• Canto: A set of four tercets with a couplet. This Ode has 5 cantos.

ENGLISH STYLE – SONNET

• Meter: It is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter barring some lines
• Form: it is of irregular form as Shelley modified the Italian structure to END SYLABLE with a couplet instead of continuing with Terza Rima, for simplicity in writing.
• E.g.: “The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, / Each like a corpse within its grave, until”

CANTO 1

The WW has been apostrophized as the harbinger of autumn, responsible for shedding leaves from trees. It has is an enchanter that terrifies dead leaves, and also God Apollo who rides a chariot and carries the dead to their graves. Furthermore, it is in charge of seeds dispersal, presuming his so-called sister, East wind to blow in springtime and bring about regeneration and revival across plains and hills.

CANTO 2

The west wind, embodiment of the water-cycle, is wet with rain. It is responsible for the commotion of rain, thunder and lightning, thus yielding tempestuous, turbulent and blustery sky. It is wails like a banshee to mourn the imminent end of the year.

CANTO 3

The Mediterranean Sea has been personified as a calm and composed body during summers that is awakened and rendered erratic, storm-tossed at the onset of the WW. The west wind is also symbolic to a king, to whom the Atlantic is subservient and breaks into abysses as it blows across its cerulean surface.

CANTO 4

The poet invokes the power of the West Wind. He appeals to it to become his comrade so that he too can scatter his dead thoughts across the globe and stir up a revolution. But he says that however passionate and zealous in his youth, he could never have vanquished the speed and alacrity of the WW.

CANTO 5

The poet directly addresses the WW. He claims that if the WW fuses with him, his words, like seeds, can sprout into buds and revive the society. He asks whether or not death marks a rebirth around the corner, and if it would take longer than the usual cycle of nature. Will the winter of his life ever see the summer of revival?