西风颂

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Background 2.1Brief Introduction of shelly 2.2Background of the creation of the poem 3. Analysis of the symbol in this poem 4. Conclusion 5. Acknowledgements 6. References Abstract Shelly was the great romantic poet in England in 19th century. The poet rebelled the darkness of this world and pursuit brightness during his lifetime. This character leaded to his momentary life. Even though he lived in a pessimistic age, the poet still had a nature of optimistic. This paper will take the “ode to the west wind”as the example ,through the analysis of the symbolic implied meaning of the west wind in this poet to draw the conclusion that: Autumn predict the decay and end of life, it is unchangeable law of natural development, but it still mean the birth of new life. [摘 要] 雪莱，英国19世纪杰出的浪漫主义诗人。诗人终生反抗黑暗，追求光明，这种个性导致他短暂的一生。虽然处于不乐观，压抑的年代，诗人却有着积极乐观的天性。本文以《西风颂》为例，通过诗中自然景象所蕴涵的象征寓意得出结论：秋天，虽然预示着生命的衰亡和结束，这是不可改变的天然发展规律，却同时意味着新的生命的诞生。 Keywords Shelly, autumn, the west wind, new life, poem 1. Introduction Ode to the west wind is written by percy bysshe shelley in 1819. it was published in 1820.It is the poet’ confession of his” tameless, and swift, and proud.”soul. 2. Background 2.1 Brief Introduction of shelly Percy bysshe shelley, ( 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) the greatest lyric poet in England, came form a family of some importance and power.. He was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as the greatest lyric poets in English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. He is most famous for Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in English language. He was known as 'mad Shelley' and 'Shelley the atheist', and his enthusiasm for studies in electricity, chemistry, and astronomy, and the exciting experiments he conducted, gave rise to many stories.  2.2 Background of the creation of the poem The Europe faced a great social change in 1819.It is an afternoon in autumn, the poet wandering around the forest near Florence, Italy .According to Shelley's note, "this poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains.They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions " Some also believe that the poem is due to the loss of his son. 3. Analysis of the symbol in this poem This poem is divided into five parts. The first three parts express the great change of the earth, sky and ocean which the west wind brings to. Whereas the last two parts mainly express the poet’s resulting emotion, give a relation between the ‘Wind’ and the speaker, there is a turn at the beginning of the fourth part; the focus is now on the speaker, or better the hearer, and what he is going to hear .The wind symbolizes the strong force which can bury the dead, dark year, and prepare for the new spring The west wind is the symbolism of freedom and dream In the forth stanza, the poet began with” If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee: A wave to pant beneath thy power , and share The impulse of thy strength, only less free Than thou, O uncontrollable!” to describe his unsatisfactory to the real world and himself. At the same time express his inner thinking: he wants to be free, uncontrollable like the wind Fifth stanza The wind is very important in this last stanza. The wind with his ‘mighty harmonies’ becomes a Creator of sounds. At the beginning of the poem the wind’ power is small. In this stanza the ‘wind’ is now capable of using both of these things mentioned before. Everything that had been said before was part of the elements – wind, earth and water. Now the fourth element comes in: the fire. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? The west wind here has become a kind of symbol, it is the spirit of the universe you can see everywhere, the spirit of the west wind break the old world and pursuit the new world. The poet compares himself to the west wind to express his beliefs about life and commitment to the old world war.. Conclusion This poem is a famous, profound scenery poem. The poet wrote the breath of autumn with passionate strokes-wild west wind, which creates both a destroyer and a protector of the westerly striking image. The wind symbolizes the strong force: it can destroy some bad thing and also can construct some bright, hopeful thing. It told us: If winter comes, can spring be far behind? It has a lot of depth and meaningful, and has been widely spread more than 100 years. Acknowledgements At the point of finishing this paper, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those who have given me hands in the course of completing this paper. Thanks for the help of my lovely friends and my supervisor Yuan who has given me so much useful advices and related references on my writing . Without their help, it would be so hard for me to finish the paper. References ​ Wilcox, Stewart C. Imagery, ideas and design in Shelley's Ode to the west wind. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1950. PR 5422 O44 W5 Erindale  ​ 赵红英. 英国文学简史文学指南[M]. 北京：中国传媒大学出版社，2006. ​ 肖亚娟. 西风颂赏析[J]. 辽宁：辽宁师范学院学报，2004. ​ 刁克利. 英美文学欣赏[M]. 北京：中国人民大学出版社，2003. ​ 桂杨清, 吴翔林. 英美文学选读[M]. 北京：中国对外翻译公司出版，1985. ​ 江枫. 雪莱诗选[M]. 长沙：湖南人民出版社，1983