西风颂论文.doc

Appreciation of Ode to the West Wind Name: Class: 学号： Abstract Ode to the West Wind is one of the marvelous poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy Bysshe Shelleywas one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. After making a close study of Shellys Ode to the West Wind, this thesis, by analyzing its features and writing techniques, aims to appreciate the fascinating beauty and glamour of this poetry. Keywords: Ode to the West Wind, Features, Writing Techniques, Revolution Introduction Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. Each poem must have unique contents, features and its specific writing techniques. Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. For Shelley was greatly influenced by the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819, the poem allegorises the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution. 2. Contents The poem Ode to the West Wind can be divided in two parts: the first three cantos are about the qualities of the ‘Wind’ and each end with the invocation ‘Oh hear!’. The last two cantos give a relation between the ‘Wind’ and the speaker. The poem begins with three cantos describing the winds effects upon earth, air, and ocean. The last two cantos are Shelley speaking directly to the wind, asking for its power, to lift him like a leaf, a cloud or a wave and make him its companion in its wanderings. He asks the wind to take his thoughts and spread them all over the world so that the youth are awoken with his ideas. The poem ends with an optimistic note which is that if winter days are here then spring is not very far. In the first canto, Shelley describes how the west wind de? stroys the dead and rotten things, weeps fallen leaves away, bring