Percy B. Shelley (1792-1822) and 'The Ode to the West Wind'

by Jinny Ahn

- Percy B. Shelley (Rogers, 2).

At his time, Shelley was known more for his radical philosophical and political views than for his poetry. While his political and philosophical views were determined before he was twenty, it is his poetry that he is most remembered for; his beautiful, elegic lyrical poetry and lines make him a scion of the Romantics. During his life, Shelley seemed to have been torn between following his poetical pursuits or his philosophical ones; his wife, Mary Shelley, writes that her husband "deliberated at one time whether he should dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics, and he resolved on the former," (Tetreault, 38). However, Shelley found an equilibrium in which he was able to incorporate both. His poems seldom do not represent some sort of philosophical ideology.

'Ode to the West Wind' is Shelley's most famous short poem. It is an invocation for an unseen force to take control and revive life. It was first composed on October 19, 1819, inspired by a walk in woodland near Florence, and it was first published in August, 1920 with Prometheus Unbound. 'Ode' is unique in its structure and its use of the complicated terza rima, which has a rhyme scheme of aba - bcb - cdc ­ ded - ee. Each of the five stanzas of the poem is composed of fourteen lines; four tercets and a couplet. This gives each stanza a compactness and solidarity unto itself. At the time that the poem was written, Shelley was recovering from the death of his young son William, who died in June, and reeling from bad reviews of a work he had just published, "The Revolt of Islam." These personal conflicts explain the imagery of death and decay in the first stanza of the poem. The poem calls for a mythical power to inspire and induce change or "a new Birth" (line 64). It is about the regenerative powers of Nature to bring forth not only new life but also poetic inspiration. The call for inspiration comes in the form like a prayer, not to a Christian God, but to an unseen spiritual force which has the same omnipresence and power as a god.

'Ode' does not have a complex publication history, however, its creation is of more interest to explain Shelley as a poet. 'Ode' was not completed in one draft, but was written in several drafts and over a period of a week. It's completion came through a fragmentary process. While Blake was known for his printing and engraving process that gave his work a permanency in its creative process, Shelley's creative process has a translucent and tangible quality about it.

Shelley's Notebooks

The Bodleian Collection is the complete collection of Shelley's 28 notebooks and manuscripts. They were compiled in 1946 from the notebooks that Lady Shelley presented in 1893 and of other notebooks presented by Shelley's heirs. After Shelley's tragic and early death, it was his wife, Mary Shelley, who remained his chief and best editor. Shelley had a tiny audience in his time and his works were often published at his own expense. Shelley would often complain to his publisher, Ollier, of neglect (Bradley, 78). Even after his death, other forces worked against him to keep him from being published and read. Shelley's own father fought the publication of Shelley's verse and prose (82) and it was due largely to Mary Shelley that he continued to be published. Her first edit of her husband's work was in 1839.

Shelley's notebooks are infamous for their intricacy and complexity. His writing was often illegible, and his wife had to decipher them after his death. When writing, Shelley would often turn his notebook upside down or sideways, and sometimes he would write in reverse. His writing was characteristically layered with different drafts on the same page written in pencil and ink. Shelley would also often write the beginning of a poem in one notebook and then complete it in another. Such was the writing of 'Ode,' which was actually scattered through several notebooks (Rogers, 13). One notebook contains a pencil draft of the first three stanzas of 'Ode,' and the last two stanzas were written five days later in another notebook. Also, over the pencil draft of the first three stanzas, Shelley had written in ink the beginning of his Italian prose story, "Una Favola." Due to this overlapping of different poems it has been difficult to recover Shelley's works. Fragments of phrases and quotes were also scattered through his notebooks. Notably, on the same draft that bears the last two stanzas of the 'Ode,' Shelley inscribed below it a quote in Greek, "By virtue, I, a mortal vanquish thee a mighty God." Some critics argue that this quote was an act of defiance against his critics and an assertion of his atheism. But it also shows how influenced Shelley was by Greek elegy and the classics. The poem's mention of the lyre and clarion, both Greek instruments, show the classical elements in the poem.

Shelley's original drafts of 'Ode' had marked differences from the way readers see it today. The notebooks show that the original last line to the poem ended not in a question but in an assertion, "When Winter comes, Spring lags not far behind!" (Rogers, 228). However, Shelley later changed this statement into a rhetorical question, "O Wind/ If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" By ending with a question, Shelley draws in the reader to develop their thoughts on the creative process and of political change. The last line shows Shelley's optimism about Spring and regeneration.

Shelley and Politics

Unfortunately, one cannot get a complete picture of Shelley as a poet without considering the political and philosophical aspects of his life. Shelley wrote multiple political pamphlets, especially in his youth, expounding his liberal ideology. He produced and paid for these pamphlets himself and would distribute them freely; sending them to coffee houses, flinging them from his balcony onto the street, and even sending his servant out to pass them out in the street (Rogers). Shelley received little support for his ideas and was persecuted by authorities. Thus his disillusionment of the political state is evident in 'Ode' by the prophetic decay of living things in Nature in the first stanza. Ultimately however, in the last stanza, Shelley hopes for a new political reformation and for a re-birth of the creative process.

Ashes and Sparks- Reading Shelley Today

Shelley's line in 'Ode' about ashes and sparks is of course where the title of this course originated. His calling the Wind to scatter his "words among mankind" is more plausible hypertextually today, then during his own time and limited publication (only 250 copies of Queen Mab were first published). Like the dead leaves scattered by the wind in 'Ode', hypertext does not remain fixed or centered to a singular authority or organization. Just as 'Ode' resists "oppression by Church and state" (Rogers, 241), so does hypertext resist institutionalization and being bound by structure and rules. Shelley calls for a freedom of thought and re-birth through the words of the poet and with hypertext this goal is closer to being achieved with the larger audience Shelley can receive. The different layers and fragments in Shelley's writings with their inter-notebook span is much like the different links and intertextuality that hypertext provides. Shelley's notebooks ultimately are a model for the hypertext paradigm.

Bibliography

 Bradley, J.L. A Shelley Chronology. Houndmilols: MacMillan Press Ltd., 1993.

Fuller, Jean Overton. Shelley: A Biography. London: Johnathan Cape
Ltd, London.

Haines, Simon. Shelley's Poetry: The Divided Self. Great Britain: MacMillan Press Ltd., 1997.

Macrae, Alasdair D.F. Percy B. Shelley: Selected Poetry and Prose. London: Routledge, 1991.

Rogers, Neville. Shelley at Work. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967.

Tetreault, Ronald. The Poetry of Life: Shelley and Literary Form. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1987.

Tomalin, Claire. Shelley and His World. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1980.