Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind
” Ode to the West Wind” was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley shortly before his death in 1822. Shelley spent the majority of his life in England where he was born to an upper class family. He attended Eton for his primary education and Oxford University until he was expelled for the publication of The Necessity of Atheism. Shortly after being expelled, Shelley married a commoner named Harriet Westbrook , which upset his family because of his wife’s low social standing. The marriage was short lived and Shelley quickly fell in love with Mary Godwin. Shelley continued writing throughout his life and his most notable works include “Ozamandias”, “Laon and Cythna”, and “Rosalind and Helen”. Mary Shelley, Shelley’s wife who was also involved in literature, wrote Frankenstein. In 1822 Shelley drowned in a boating accident in the Gulf of Spieza. Shelly is mainly noted as the most passionate of the Romantic writers and for his usage of experimental styles in poetry.
“Ode to the West Wind” was written by Shelley on a day when the weather was unpredictable and windy, the poem reflects the mood of the weather and expresses Shelley’s desire for creativeness and intellect. The first section of the poem focuses on the description of the colorful autumn leaves being stirred by the wind. The line ” Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver..” shows the relationship between Shelley’s desire to create and nature’s force. The second section