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An Explication of An Ode To The West Wind

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The late selected poet Mr. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote an "Ode to the West Wind" during the Industrial Revolution. The poetic structure consists of five parts, which includes 25 stanzas and 70 lines. In order to contribute to the overall effect of the poem, the author uses a variety of figurative language that emphasizes the need for positive change and the "West Wind" is actually a symbol of powerful destruction or revolution. In addition to this symbolism, the writer incorporates other forms of imagery and repetition that creates rhythmic meter which gives the poetry a sense of musicality. The following explication will further identify more of the rhetorical devices that are utilized throughout the lyric.
In the first canto, there are comparisons that paint more vivid pictures of this potentially destructive force. In the opening line of verse, there is the metaphor "thou breath of Autumn's being (1)." Similarly, there is the simile in the third phrase "like ghosts from an enchanter fleeting (3)." There is also personification, e.g. "Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow her clarion o'er the dreaming earth" in clauses 9-10. There is additionally "Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams the blue Mediterranean where he lay, lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams" in verses 29-31.
Besides these tropes, there are the repetitive echoes of rhyme and alliteration. Examples of this perfect rhyme involve but are not restricted to dead, red, and bed (2,4, and 6). There is not only alliterative consonance in the title but also throughout the masterpiece, e.g. comes and can in the very last group of words. On a similar note, there is the assonance of "are" and "an" in row three (3). Moreover, there is the parallelism of "If I were a" in successive lines 43-44.
In summary, the thematic meaning of this terza rima is the creative and destructive power of the universe. What's more, the artist works with various literary techniques in order to paint lucid mental images of this turbulent air. In particular, he vividly describes this force of nature via the various figures of speech. He, too, makes rhythm via the beginning and end rhyme in each poetic paragraph. All of the stylistic elements are a contribution to the underlying idea, or key point of the lyric poem.
Of course, the gist is that this breath of fresh air can be destructive and not everyone can handle change. After all, change is what the wind symbolizes and they see this force as a threat to their comfort or the status quo. Due to their fear of change, they keep us in a box by expecting us to be like those who have gone before us. Likewise, society has normalized irresponsible behavior and our elders have been holding on to us more tightly than ever. Since we cannot change the circumstances around us, we can be the change that we wish to see just like You have advised us via Your late Counselor Ghandi even before You knitted us into our mothers' wombs.

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