UNIT 10 SHELLEY Structure 10.0 Objectives 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Percy Bysshe Shelley 10.3 Ode to the West Wind 10.3.1 Text 10.3.2 Interpretation 10.3.3 Poetic Devices 10.4 To A Skylark 10.4.1 Text 10.4.2 lntcrpretation 10.4.3 Poetic Devices 10.5 Let Us Sum Up 10.6 Answers to Exercises -- - ~ 10.0 OBJECTIVES ~ , -- - In this unit we are golng to discuss two of Shelley's well known poems: 'Ode to the West Wind' and 'To a Skylark'. After reading this unit you w~llbe able to appreciate: Shclleyan thought, 0 Poetic craftsmanship whlch consists in fus~onof form and content, ease and flexibility of rhythm, and style which contains a profus~onof vivid and striking images. You will also bc able to analyse and apprcclarc. othcr poems by Shelley. INTRODUCTION In the'earlier units of this b~ock'~ouhave been acquaint& with sonle of the main characteristics of Romantic poetry, which make it distinct frbm Neo-Classical poetry. of Block 2. The poetry of the Romantics such as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron is marked by an intensity of fkeling and imagination, a predilection for intution than , reason, a return to the primitive, medieval and natural life, to rural solitude as also a preoccupation with the aesthetic and spiritual aspect of nature. It is also marked by visions of the mysterious, the ideal and the infinite. It isa poetry of individual speculations and image and symbols. In this unit we are going to discuss further these characteristics with reference to Shelley's "Ode to thc West Wind" and "To A Skylark". We shall highlight the inevitable gap between desire and fulfilment, tragic knowledge of the transcience of human life and the glad life of nature perpetually renewing itself in the spring - hallmarks of Shelley's poetry, and his poetic craftsmanship which consists in fusion of form and content, musicality and a profusion of striking images. We would like you to first read the poem. Then you should rcad ~t agaln with thc . help of interpretation of lines and words given in the unit. After you have followed the interpretation read the note on poetic dev~ccs.After you have understood thc poem and critical comments, write down the answers to exercises. Your answer5 should be then checked with the anqwers glven by us at the end of thc unlt. Shelley 10.2 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY I r Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792- 1822) came of an aristocratic family. Even as a child at . Eton, he reacted by revolting against authority and withdrawing himself. He bred within himself a passionate desire to reform the world and improve the lot of mankind. His dual reactions of escape and rebellion shaped the essential spirit of his poezry. He and his friend, Hogg;were sent down from Cambridge for writing and circulathg a pamphlet on "The ~ecessit~for Atheism". Shelley's poetr-is marked by optimism for he seeks in this natural world for analogies by which he wants to assure himself that regeneration follows destruction; that change does not mean extinction and there is yet hope for the world if it will pay heed to those unacknowledged legislatorslof the world-the sensitive poets like himself. Though he is known for his lyrics-'Ode to the West Wind, 'To a Skylark' and 'The Cloud', he wrote 'The Mask of Anarchy,' an indictment of Castlereagh's administration, 'Peter Bell the Third,' a satire on Wordsworth. He also composed Prometheus Unbound, his great lyrical drama. His last long poem was me Triumph of Life. 10.3 ODE TO THE WEST WIND Referring to his 'Ode to the West Wid', Shelley himself tells us that "this'poem was chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence on a day when that tempe'stous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting E the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as foresaw, at sunset P The .Romantic Poets with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by the magnificient thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions" The Ode is charged with speed, force and energy like the tempestuous wind itself. The powerful movement of the verse is carried on by uy of a series of images thrown up in rapid succession. The movement is not just confined to the elemental forces of nature: it is idso to be seen in the emotions roused in the poet's mind by his contemplation of the wind. The movement slows down in Section 3 and then gains rapidity in line with the poet's impetuous spirit, as he drives to the close. There is, in this poem, a blend of natural and spiritual forces. the West Wind b a force of Nature, but it also symbolises the freespirit of man untamed and prciud. Shelley's great passion for the regeneration of mankind and rebirth of a new world finds a fitting symbol in the West Wind, which destroys and preserves, sweeps away the old and obsolete ideas and fosters fresh and new ones. The Ode has five sections; each depicting one aspect of the autumn scene. Quotes from: Shelley Poetical Works edt. by Thomas Hutchinson \ 10.3.1 Text 0 wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence th& leaves dead Are driven, like.ghosts from an enchanter fleeing. Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: 0 thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, untik Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues and odors plain and hill: Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! 2 Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion, Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread On the blue surface of thine aery surge, Like the bright hair uplifted from the head Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zenith's height, The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge Of the dying year, to which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulcher, Vaulted with all thy congregated might Of vapors, from whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear! 3l Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay, And saw in sleep 014 palaces and towers Qmvering within the wave's intenser day, All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou For whose path the Atlantic's level powers Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear The sapless foliage of the ocean, know Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear! 4 If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share The impulse of thy strength, only less free Than thou, 0 uncontrollable! If even I were as in my boyhood, and could be The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven, .As then, when to outstrip thy skyey speed Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! A heavy weight of'hours has chained and bowed One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. , 5 Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetudus one! Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth I The trumpet of a propheg! 0 Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 10.3.2 Interpretation Section I depicts the wind in its dual aspect of destroyer and preserver. It opens with the customary invocation or address to the West Wind which blows in autuq. But - here, autumn is not mello and fruitful as in Keats' 'Ode to Autumn: The poet calls the West Wind, the breath of Autumn; it is a wild spirit ("unseen presence") invisible like an enchanter; the leaves are dead leaves fallen from trees and are compared to ghosts that fly before the magical powers of an enchanter. The inversion of 'leave& dead' insists on fatality by posing 'dead' as a rhyme-word at the end of the line. Even though the wind is seen as a destroyer, the West Wind destroys to preserve. Shelley uses colours that suggest disease, decay and death such as 'yellow', 'black', 'pale' and 'hectic red'. Death and life, however, are simultaneously discussed. The seeds scattered by the West Wind are only seemingly dead till the warm Spring breeze blows thawing the ground, so that the seeds can sprout through the softened earth and spring flowers quickly bloom everywhere.