Examine the impact of the West Wind on the land, the sky, the sea and
the poet himself as described in the poem Ode
to the West Wind?
The first three stanzas of the
poem Ode to the West Wind are a single unit. Each of them describes the
power of the wind over one of the elements- the earth, the sky and the sea. The
last two stanzas form another unit, emphasis the relation between the wind and
the poet. The first unit helps the poet to establish a personal relationship
with the wind in the second unit where “He,”
according to S. A Brooke, “passes from
magnificent union of himself with Nature and magnificent realization of her
storm and peace to equally great self- description, and then mingles all Nature
and all himself together, that he may sing of the restoration of mankind.”
The first three stanzas which
describe the impact of the wind on the land, the sky and the ocean are built up
on the antithesis between the two powers of the wind- its terrifying powers of
destruction and its gentle fostering influence.
The poem begins with an invocation
to the West Wind, first as a spirit of destruction and creation which moves
over the land sweeping away the old sowing seeds of new, next as the shower
that moves the sky with fierce outburst of lightning of clouds and rains; and
finally, as the inmost recesses of the oceans and fills it with the play of
life and death.
Impact of the West Wind on the land:-
In the first stanza of the poem,
the poet gives a vivid account of the West Wind on the land. The wild wind
scatters far and wide the withered leaves, “yellow
and black and pale and hectic red!” and breeds seeds of new which remain “cold and low” under the snow during
the whole of winter. When the spring comes, these seeds give birth to new
plants and vegetations. The earth then becomes beautiful with new colour and
smell:
“Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
……………………………………………………………..
With living hues and odours plain and hill.”
Impact of the West Wind on the sky:
