Transcript Shelley

Shelley(1792-1822)
Life and Works
Appreciation of
Ode to the West Wind
Shelley, Life and
Works
In his youth Shelley was an anticonformist and a radical. He was expelled
from Oxford University in 1811 because
of his publishing an anti-religious
pamphlet "The Necessity of Atheism".
In 1813 “Queen Mab”, his first long poem of
importance was written.
In 1816 he married Mary Godwin, another
radical, and together they discussed
political philosophy, anarchism,
individualism, socialism and utopianism.
.
But their peaceful life was broken by the
sudden death of his first wife Harriet,
who drowned herself.
A great scandal was made out of it by
Shelley’s Political enemies. He was
compelled to leave England in 1818 and
spent all the rest of his life in Italy.
In Italy Shelley and Byron formed a closer
connection with each other and from then
on the 2 names have been linked up for
ever.
In 1818 Shelley's "The Revolt of Islam"
was published. The years of his
settlement in Italy were great ones in his
literary career. Important works: “Masque
of Anarchy”, “Prometheus Unbound” etc.
In 1821 he wrote an elegy “Adonais” on the
death of Keats
In 1822 he was drowned on a sailing trip.
• in the Protestant Cemetery in
Rome
• Venus and Adonis
Mary Godwin(1797-1851)
b
Prometheus
Karl Marx on
Byron and Shelley
The real difference between Byron and
Shelley is: those who understand them and
love them rejoice that Byron died at 36,
because if he had lived he would have
become a reactionary bourgois; they grieve
that Shelley died at 29, because he was
essentially a revolutionist and he would
always have been one of the advanced
guard of Socialism.
About Shelley’s Poetry
The central thematic concerns of Shelley's poetry
are largely the same themes that defined Romanticism:
beauty, the passions, nature, political liberty, creativity,
and the sanctity of the imagination. What makes
Shelley's treatment of these themes unique is his
philosophical relationship to his subject matter—which
was better developed and articulated than that of any
other Romantic poet with the possible exception of
Wordsworth—and his temperament which possessed
an extraordinary capacity for joy, love, and hope.
Shelley fervently believed in the possibility of realizing
an ideal of human happiness as based on beauty.
Keats believed in beauty and aesthetics
for their own sake. But Shelley was able to
believe that poetry makes people and
society better; his poetry is suffused with this
kind of inspired moral optimism, which he
hoped would affect his readers sensuously,
spiritually, and morally, all at the same.
His lyric poems are superb in their beauty,
grandeur and mastery of language.
Shelley:
Ode to the West Wind
What is an ode and why does
Shelley offer an ode to the west
wind?
An ode is a dignified and
elaborately structured lyric poem of
some length, praising and glorifying
an individual, commemorating an
event, or describing nature.
Canto I:
wild West Wind
Apart from the alliteration it is also worth
noting the capitalization of West Wind in
the poem. In typically Romantic fashion
an abstract quality or aspect of Nature is
personified and addressed in the poem,
so that it appears divine or god-like.
winged seeds
Borne by the air, these seeds fall to the earth
and lie dormant, not dead, until awakened by
the clarion call of Spring.
living hues
bright and cheerful after the drabness
and
death of Winter
clarion
i.e., the trumpet call, a traditional
pastoral
motif, perhaps associated with the
Resurrection, but here associated
with the
pastoral image of the shepherdess
summoning her flocks, the windborne
seeds springing into buds.
azure sister of the Spring
"azure" refers to the clear blue of the
cloudless skies of Spring, but the
phrase as a
whole relates to the gentle west wind of
Spring, more maternal than Autumn's
wind.
At this point in the stanza there is a
distinct
shift in mood, anticipating the gentler
and
•
In this first of the five sections of the poem,
the speaker begins to define the domains and
the powers of the West Wind. Section I
describes the wind's effects on the land. The
autumn wind scatters dead leaves and seeds
on the forest soil, where the dead leaves
eventually fertilize the earth and the seeds
take root as new growth. Both "Destroyer and
Preserver of the seasons, the wind ensures
the cyclical regularity of death and life,
endings and beginnings. The theme of
regeneration and the interconnectedness
runs throughout "Ode to the West Wind."
西风颂
一
哦，狂暴的西风，秋之生命的呼吸！
你无形，但枯死的落叶被你横扫，
有如鬼魅碰到了巫师，纷纷逃避：
黄的，黑的，灰的，红得像患肺痨，
呵，重染疫疠的一群：西风呵，是你
以车驾把有翼的种子摧送到
黑暗的冬床上，它们就躺在那里，
像是墓中的死穴，冰冷，深藏，低贱，
直等到春天，你碧空的姊妹吹起
她的喇叭，在沉睡的大地上响遍，
（唤出嫩芽，像羊群一样，觅食空中）
将色和香充满了山峰和平原。
不羁的精灵呵，你无处不远行；
破坏者兼保护者：听吧，你且聆听！
Canto II:
Angels
Possibly a reference to messengers and
heralds
of violent thunderstorms and waterspouts,
but
helping also to build up the atmosphere
of
supernatural energies and forces
suggested
later in the stanza.
•
dirge
a mournful lament for the dead. Here
Shelley seeks to emphasize the
terrifying
darkness of the storm scene, with its
darkness and associations with death.
congregated might
The image here is of the darkened sky
like
a vast cathedral’s interior, with the solid
clouds forming the roof, and further
images
of death and also of the apocalypse有
如世
界末日: "vast sepulchre", "dying year",
etc.
• Section II addresses the wind's
influence on the sky, and the wind helps
the clouds shed rain, as it had helped
the trees shed leaves in stanza I. Just
as the dead foliage nourishes new life in
the forest soil, so does the rain
contribute to Nature's regenerative
cycle.
二
没入你的急流，当高空一片混乱，
流云象大地的枯叶一样被撕扯
脱离天空和海洋的纠缠的枝干。
成为雨和电的使者：它们飘落
在你的磅礴之气的蔚蓝的波面，
有如狂女的飘扬的头发在闪烁，
从天穹的最遥远而模糊的边沿
直抵九霄的中天，到处都在摇曳
欲来雷雨的卷发，对濒死的一年
你唱出了葬歌，而这密集的黑夜
将成为它广大墓陵的一座圆顶，
里面正有你的万钧之力的凝结；
那是你的浑然之气，从它会迸涌
黑色的雨，冰雹和火焰：哦，你听！
Canto III:
• At the beginning of this third section there
is an apparent change of mood and tone,
as the poem recalls the mood both of
Summer, and of older aristocratic
civilizations.
Baie's Bay... old palaces and
towers
An area west of Naples, a notoriously
volcanic area, (hence the reference to
"pumice"), and a former tourist resort in
Roman times. In 1818 Shelley had taken
a boat trip in the Bay and observed "the
ruins of its antique grandeur standing like
rocks in its transparent sea under our
boat". As the Roman town had been
renowned for
• its luxury, immorality and even cruelty,
Shelley uses the image of the now
underwater parts of the resort as a symbol
of an older aristocratic order, overgrown
with "moss and flowers", and levelled by
the Atlantic's power: As in Ozymandias
Shelley here introduces a reflection on the
transitoriness of human authority when set
against the forces of nature, manifested in
phenomenon such as volcanoes and
tempests.
know thy voice
• Here Shelley comments "The
phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion
of the third stanza is well known to
naturalists. the vegetation at the bottom of
the sea, of rivers, and of lakes,
sympathizes with that of the land in the
change of the seasons, and is
consequently influenced by the winds
• which announce it." In the context of
what has preceded them, these lines
suggest that even the older aristocratic
Roman order had to recognize the
inevitability of its fall under the forces of
time and of nature. And again the West
Wind is typified as both agent and
harbinger先驱，先兆 of radical and
violent change. Within the stanza as a
whole these closing lines radically disrupt
the mood of calm and sensuality created
in the first 8 lines.
tremble and despoil
themselves
• "Despoil" here refers to the loss of leaves.
Shelley's reference to the underwater
trees losing its leaves echoes the earlier
references to the loss of leaves in the first
two stanzas, which is picked up and drawn
together in stanzas 4 and 5.
• In stanza III, the West Wind wields its power
over the sea; but unlike the first two stanzas,
this one is introduced by an image of calm,
peace, and sensuality. The Mediterranean
Sea is pictured as smooth and tranquil,
sleeping alongside the old Italian town of
Baiae. Once a playground of Roman
emperors, Baiae sunk as a result of volcanic
activity and is now the bed of a lush
underwater garden. But the wind can also
"waken" (line 29) the sea and disturb the
summer tranquility of the waters by ushering
in an autumn storm.
三
是你，你将蓝色的地中海唤醒，
而它曾经昏睡了一整个夏天，
被澄澈水流的回旋催眠入梦，
就在巴亚海湾的一个浮石岛边，
它梦见了古老的宫殿和楼阁
在水天辉映的波影里抖颤，
而且都生满青苔、开满花朵，
那芬芳真迷人欲醉！呵，为了给你
让一条路，大西洋的汹涌的浪波
把自己向两边劈开，而深在渊底
那海洋中的花草和泥污的森林
虽然枝叶扶疏，却没有精力；
听到你的声音，它们已吓得发青：
一边颤栗，一边自动萎缩：哦，你听！
If
• At this point there is a break in the poem, a
radical shift of argument and a pulling together.
Shelley wants himself, hypothetically假想, to be
a leaf, a cloud and a wave, subject to the force
of the West Wind, and asks to be borne aloft
with it: he may be talking about "inspiration" or
"enthusiasm", both words which are derived
from the sense of being filled with air, inflated,
rising above experience and age.
O Uncontrollable!
• The Wind, unlike Shelley himself, is not
subject to the forces of self-regulation and
the Apollonian order. He is asking, in effect,
for a return to the raw power and energy
he felt and knew as a child.
• After three stanzas of describing the West Wind's
power, which are all echoed in the first three lines
of Stanza IV, the speaker asks to be moved by
this spirit. For the first time in "Ode to the West
Wind," the wind confronts humanity in the form of
speaker of the poem. No longer an idealistic
young man, this speaker has experienced sorrow,
pain, and limitations. He stumbles, even as he
asks to be spiritually uplifted. At the same time, he
can recall his younger years when he was
"tameless, and swift, and proud" like the wind.
These recollections help him to call on the wind
for inspiration and new life. In this manner, the
poem suggests that humans, too, are part of the
never-ending natural cycle of death and rebirth.
四
哎，假如我是一片枯叶被你浮起，
假如我是能和你飞跑的云雾，
是一个波浪，和你的威力同喘息，
假如我分有你的脉搏，仅仅不如
你那么自由，哦，无法约束的生命！
假如我能像在少年时，凌风而舞
便成了你的伴侣，悠游天空
（因为呵，那时候，要想追你上云霄，
似乎并非梦幻），我就不致像如今
这样焦躁地要和你争相祈祷。
哦，举起我吧，当我是水波、树叶、浮云！
我跌在生活底荆棘上，我流血了！
这被岁月的重轭所制服的生命
原是和你一样：骄傲、轻捷而不驯。
Section 5
• Lines 65-67
• In "A Defence of Poetry," Shelley wrote that
"the mind in creation is as a fading coal,
which some invisible influence, like an
inconstant wind, awakens to transitory
brightness." In asking the wind to fan — and
hopefully arouse — the dying embers of his
words, the speaker seems to be echoing this
idea.
The trumpet of a prophecy!
• There is a conscious echo here back to
the clarion call of stanza 1: there the call
was associated with Spring, and there are
similar suggestions here of the
proclamation of a new era in human
society, preceded by the apocalyptic有如
世界末日的 energy symbolized by the
West Wind.
• While he begins by asking to be moved by
the wind in Section 4, he soon in section 5
asks to become one with this power. As a
breeze might ignite a glowing coal, the
speaker asks for the wind to breathe new life
into him and his poetic art. With his last
question, the speaker reminds his audience
that change is on the horizon, be it personal
or natural, artistic or political. The world may
not be ready yet, but he hopes that if winter
and death come, then spring, representing
renewal and change, will not be far behind.
五
把我当作你的竖琴吧，有如树林：
尽管我的叶落了，那有什么关系！
你巨大的合奏所振起的音乐
将染有树林和我的深邃的秋意：
虽忧伤而甜蜜。呵，但愿你给予我
狂暴的精神！奋勇者呵，让我们合一！
请把我枯死的思想向世界吹落，
让它像枯叶一样促成新的生命！
哦，请听从这一篇符咒似的诗歌，
就把我的话语，像是灰烬和火星
从还未熄灭的炉火向人间播散！
让预言的喇叭通过我的嘴唇
把昏睡的大地唤醒吧！要是冬天
已经来了，西风呵，春日怎能遥远？
Commentary
Written in the Autumn, 1819, and published
in the following year, this poem has become
one of the most popular and best-known of
Shelley's verses. In a note Shelley outlined
the circumstances behind the poem's
making:
“This poem was conceived and chiefly
written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near
Florence, and on a day when the
tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at
once mild and animating, was collecting the
vapors 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. ”
Although the poem contains reference to
this localized setting, it moves out from this
to associate the West Wind with biological,
social and the poet’s personal significance.
At this time of the year, Autumn, the west
wind blowing across Europe from the
Atlantic can be extremely violent. In this
apocalyptic poem Shelley characterizes it as
a destructive and fearsome force, yet it is
also a harbinger of the inevitable coming of
Spring. It is, therefore, both Destroyer and
Creator, and Shelley sees the West Wind as
a driving force behind the turning wheel of
the seasons and the cycles of Life-andDeath.
In Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and many other
languages, the words for wind, breath, soul,
and inspiration are all identical or related.
Shelley's "West Wind" thus seems to symbolize
an inspiring spiritual power that moves
everywhere, and affects everything.
In a personal sense Shelley addresses the
Wind as a force which will reinvigorate him,
the Wind of Spirit and Inspiration, at a time
(aged 27) when he feels his own powers as a
poet are on the decline.
Socially and politically, the Wind represents
the destructive and revolutionary energies
which had been seen in Europe over the
previous thirty years, overthrowing longestablished and corrupt social orders in
France and Italy. Would there be a "Spring"
to follow the destructiveness of this
European Autumn and Winter, leading to a
new renaissance in political and social
affairs? This symbolism is most clearly
evident in Section III of the poem.
Form: Fusion of terza rima and sonnet
Enjambment
• The tumbling effect of this rhyme pattern
creates a sense of the turbulent, swirling
and tumultuous activity of wind as it drives
and tosses the leaves, clouds and waves.
Enjambment
A run-on line of poetry in which logical
and grammatical sense carries over
from
one line into the next. An enjambed
line
differs from an end-stopped line in
which
the grammatical and logical sense is
Shelley Questions
1) What does the wind represent?
2) Describe the structure of this
poem.
How does the "terza rima"
verse
form suit this poem's subject
and
aims?
3) What is Shelley's message?
4) Examine Shelley’s use of
personification. How and why
does he use personification?
5) Characterize the West Wind in this
poem - what are its powers, what
effects
does it have on nature (or the other
elements in nature) and the poet?
In what
way does it embody both danger
and
hope? How is the operation of
Shelley's
West Wind different from natural
forces
Answer to Question 3
• Shelley wanted his poem to be a message
for humanity and a step to improving the
world. Shelley wanted to challenge the
universe, god, nature, political power and
social order. Along with the other poets in
this period he wanted to create a new
world by changing reality.