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"Ode to the West Wind"

"Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an example of a Romantic poem. One of the elements of the Romantic Movement in literature was the elevation of Nature as a subject not only for poetry but for study, for life, and as a source of philosophy. This element is seen in different forms in the works of different artists. Romantic poetry such as that by Wordsworth, for instance, takes a more realistic and naturalistic view of Nature than does the more other-worldly sense of Nature found in Coleridge. Each poet features Nature, creates images of the natural world, and makes a connection between human life and the world of nature. This point of view is partially a product of the Enlightenment and of a more human-centered conception of the universe. Shelley puts these ideas into "Ode to the West Wind," addressing Nature as a force in human life and as an entity to which he feels a direct and personal connection.

He begins by so addressing the wind:

O wild West Wind; thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing. . . .

He makes clear his attitude toward the wind as a force of Nature and suggests its power in the last lines of the first section:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! The poet throughout addresses the wind as a personification of Nature. Romanticism was a movement marked by a shift in feeling, a shift in sensibility, as well as a new concept of man's relation to the natural order and to Nature in particular. Romanticism was marked by certain attitudes, among them the following: 1) a growing interest in Nature and in the natural, primitive, and uncivilized manifestations of Nature; 2) a growing interest in scenery; 3) an association of human moods with the "moods" of Nature, l...

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"Ode to the West Wind". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:06, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702298.html