Ode to the West Wind Add a review

"Ode to the West Wind" is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819, in Cascine wood, near Florence, Italy. It was originally published in 1820 by Charles Ollier in London as part of the collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems.

Shelley wanted his message of reform and peaceful, nonviolent revolution spread. The wind becomes the trope for disseminating the word of change through the poet-prophet figure.

Another view is that the poem was written in response to the loss of his son, William (born to Mary Shelley) in 1819. The ensuing pain influenced Shelley. The poem allegorizes the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution. At the time of composing this poem, Shelley also had the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819 in mind. His other poems written at the same time, "The Masque of Anarchy", Prometheus Unbound, "Song to the Men of England", and "England in 1819", take up these same themes of political change, revolution, and the role of the poet.