As already pointed out, stanza 1 describes the effect of the wind on the land first in autumn and then in spring. In the former season the wind is presented as a destroyer of the previous season and its action is characterized by images of death. This function changes in spring when the wind is seen as a preserver, thus restoring the life that autumn had taken away from the land. The images change accordingly and words which evoke

In stanza 2 the action of the wind shifts from the land to the sky, but the images the poet uses are still linked to the preceding ones. The clouds in fact are compared to leaves and boughs. These clouds are angels, in the sense of messengers, of the rain and lightning that will come at nightfall. Also in this case, however, the wind is presented in autumn and its function is a destructive one, because it deals with rain, hail and storm. To add to its destructive force, the wind is also addressed as dirge and sepulchre, which are associated with death.

In stanza 3 the mood changes completely: peace is restored and the violent energy of the preceding stanzas has ceased. Now the action of the wind is described in spring and on the sea, its function being a creative one. The sea, in fact, is seen as the place where in ancient times civilization was born. He visualizes how the wind disturbed the typical calm of the Mediterranean sea, personified as a languid form, “lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams”, and reflecting “old palaces and towers”, but reflecting them lazily, like a person asleep. The first part of stanza 3 is characterized by a softer atmosphere and sweet colours (the azure and crystalline sea) and by the presence of flowers. Moreover, soft consonants and falling cadences have replaced the earlier harsher consonants. Towards the end of the stanza, however, a gloomier mood re-emerges and the scene shifts from the Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic Ocean, described in powerful and frightening terms, whose level powers cleave themselves into chaos and whose vegetation in the dept

Some topics in this essay:
Europe Shelley, Atlantic Ocean, Divine Comedy, West Wind, Style Formally, west wind, ode west wind, stanza 3, poet’s identification wind, wind land, land sky, poet’s identification, stanza 1, identification wind, final stanzas, wind seen, shelley concerned,