Ode to the West Wind
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students and Staff at the University of Virginia

Sources

London : C. and J. Ollier, 1820"Ode to the West Wind" was first printed in a volume entitled Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems, published by the London publishing partnership of the brothers Charles and James Ollier. We have taken our edition and page images from the Google Books version of that first print edition.

Editorial Statements

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact lic.open.anthology@gmail.com.

Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section for more information.

Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Ode to the West Wind">. Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems, C. and J. Ollier, 1820 , 188-192 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/ShelleyP/shelley-ode. Accessed: 2024-12-30T18:09:33.602Z

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188 ODE TO THE WEST WIND.*^Ode Ode*This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathises with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it. [Author's note] [Audio File]^AudioAudio

Librivox recording of "Ode to the West Wind," read by Leonard Wilson I. 1O, wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, 2Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead 3Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 189 4Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, 5Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O, thou, 6Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed 7The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, 8Each like a corpse within its grave, until 9Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow 10Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill 11(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) 12With living hues and odours plain and hill: 13Wild Spirit, which art moving every where; 14Destroyer and preserver; hear, O, hear! II. 15Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion, 16Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, 17Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, 18Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread 19On the blue surface of thine airy surge, 20Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 190 21Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge 22Of the horizon to the zenith's height 23The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge 24Of the dying year, to which this closing night 25Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, 26Vaulted with all thy congregated might 27Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere 28Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O, hear! III. 29Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams 30The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, 31Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, 32Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay, 33And saw in sleep old palaces and towers 34Quivering within the wave's intenser day, 35All overgrown with azure moss and flowers 36So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou 37For whose path the Atlantic's level powers 191 38Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below 39The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear 40The sapless foliage of the ocean, know 41Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear, 42And tremble and despoil themselves: O, hear! IV. 43If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; 44If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; 45A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share 46The impulse of thy strength, only less free 47Than thou, O, uncontroulable! If even 48I were as in my boyhood, and could be 49The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven, 50As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed 51Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven 52As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. 53Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! 54I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! 192 55A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed 56One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. V. 57Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: 58What if my leaves are falling like its own! 59The tumult of thy mighty harmonies 60Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, 61Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce, 62My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! 63Drive my dead thoughts over the universe 64Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! 65And, by the incantation of this verse, 66Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth 67Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! 68Be through my lips to unawakened earth 69The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind, 70If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Footnotes

Ode_*This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathises with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it. [Author's note]