This poem opens by making a comparison between the West Wind and the “breath of Autumn’s being” which tells us that we are moving away from summer which is lively and colorful to winter which is more dark and grim. The speaker describes the wind as a force driving death as the dead leaves and corpse-like seeds are carried and moved by this wind. The wind is almost carrying dead nature to its grave and essentially taking it away from its ‘life’. This is contrasted by the idea of Spring’s wind. Spring is often a symbol for life, rebirth, and becoming ‘new’ again, therefore wind in spring could be bringing in that rebirth and encouraging it. Although this idea is especially interesting because the speaker is asking the wind to carry him, like the speaker is almost asking to be carried to death. My interpretation was less literal, but more focused on the notion that the speaker may be ready to let parts of himself decay and see them be reborn again or built by the new Spring wind. While the speaker states says: “Drive my dead thoughts over the universe\ Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth” (lines 63-64). In these lines the speaker is asking the wind to carry his dead thoughts to new places for a “new birth.” I think the speaker is expressing that the ideas he has killed may find new life somewhere else. I think the poem is very beautiful and optimistic if you follow this interpretation, like all old and dead things can find a fresh purpose and rediscover their importance in the hands of new people or if they’re viewed from a different perspective.
Ode to the West Wind
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