A Stylistic Analysis of Ode to the West Wind

Class 3, Name:XXX, Student Number: XXXXXXXXXX

Abstract: Ode to the West Wind is the most famous lyric poetry of Shelley, a well-known English romantic poet. In this poem, Shelley applied many figures of speech, combined scenery-depicting and emotion-expressing. The lively rhythm, effusive emotion and profound meaning unified the form and the content. This paper tries to analyze in the following three aspects----Firstly, at phonetic level, to illustrate that this poem render atmosphere and express ideological purpose by acoustics, mainly in rhyme and pause. Secondly, at lexical level, this poem applied simile, metaphor and personification to make unreal images more specific and vivid, make flat words full of strong infection. Last, at syntactic level, from the structural analysis of the inversion, repetition and rhetorical question in this poem, we know clearer about the relationship between forms and contents.

Key Words: Phonetic level; lexical level; syntactic level; forms; contents

1 Introduction

“Using proper words in proper places, and this is the real definition of style.” From the definition of style that Swift gave. We can make a comprehension that the language expression way of a literary work is the most remarkable style. As the old Chinese saying goes, “the style is the man”. By reading the words and phrases of a work, it is no wonder that we can guess the creating time and author of the work. For instance, the writing style of Elizabethan Age is full of passion and romantic color, and integrated and unified in structure. The style of Hemingway is clear, concise and simple in sentence structure.

But we cannot treat different things as the same; we don’t exclude the

possibility that authors in different times may have similar writing style. Actually, since the stylistics came into being, there is no unified definition of style. Many experts and scholars tried to give a definition of style from their own research fields. Simply speaking, there are two research objects of style—one is the ideological contents of literary works; the other is linguistic feature of style. That is to say, it mainly refers to forms and contents.

Contents are the thoughts and view of author. Forms include grammar, vocabulary, rhetoric devices and so on, i.e. linguistic phenomenon. Experts argued about the relationship between forms and contents all the time. Generally speaking, early stylists emphasized the research of language forms rather than contents, such as, both “way of writing” and “mode of expression” show the separation of forms and contents. But later, people are more and more likely emphasize the impartibility between them. Then, what’s the relationship between literary works and stylistics? Like a literary work can analyze in different angles, the analytical methods of stylistics are different. The variety of problem analysis comes from the influence of the linguistics and literary criticism. Until now, literature text is the most common materials of problem analysis. Stylistic analysis depends mainly on text itself.

Most stylistic analysis is not only for the purpose of simply analyzing the characteristics of text itself, but to show the function on explaining texts, or combine literature effects with language causes. From all above, we can draw a conclusion that stylistics mainly refers to the analysis of text and the application of language, that is, stylistic analysis means the combination of thoughts and language features of the authors. This paper tries to analyze Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind in phonetic, lexical and syntactic Level.

2 The Phonetic Level

Compared with other literary forms, poetry pays more attention to the musicality. Different from other authors that use languages to express information, poets not only express meaning with words, but also convey sound. The musicality of

poetry is so important that musicality becomes one of the indispensable conditions of definition of poetry. The music of poetry is that poets combine rhythm, rhyme and words, in the purpose of foiling the atmosphere of poetry, enhancing the emotional rendering of poetry and giving readers the enjoyment of beauty. And the musicality of poetry is mainly showed in rhyme and meter. While analyzing poetry, voice is always an important standard. Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, tidy in meters, strong in rhythm, shows out the charm of music. Thus, achieve the purpose of rendering atmosphere and express mind by acoustics.

2.1 Rhyme

The lines of the whole poem mainly conform to the iambic pentameter which is the most common rhyme in this poem. This kind of rhyme is cadenced and full of musicality. Except rhymes, this poem use many alliterations, like in the first line of the first stanza in Chapter one, “O Wild West Wind”, in the second stanza, “wintry”, in the third stanza, “where, winged, within” all alliterate in semivowel. This kind of rhyme sounds like west wine sweeping from your ears, expresses the objects vivid and visual.

2.2 Pause

Every languages and styles have pauses. However, pauses in poetry are more obvious and systemic than prose. English pauses are related to lines of poetry and rhythms. Different pause forms have different literary styles. In English, there are at least four silent pause forms. Poet used many intermediate stops, means pause in the middle of the line. For example, at the beginning:

O Wild West Wind, thou breath if Autumn’s being

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

The comma in the line means the intermediate stop. This pause slow down the rhythm of the poem and highlight the tremendous power of the west wind.

3 The Lexical Level

Shelley use rhetorical devices to make unreal images more specific, vivid, and

make flat words full of strong infection. Here, the rhetorical devices mainly refer to simile, metaphor and personification.

3.1 Simile

Each like a corpse with in its grave（仿佛是坟墓中的尸体）

Loose clouds like Earth’s decaying leaves are shed（纷乱的云彩恰如满地枯叶，从天空和海洋交叉的枝干上吹落下来）

Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!（请把我当做波浪、落叶、云！）

3.2 Metaphor

The locks of the approaching storm（把云层比作发怒的酒神）

I fall upon the thoms of life!（把生活的磨难比作荆棘）

The trumpet of a prophecy!（把西风比作号角）

3.3 Personification

The poet personified west wind from the beginning to the end, name the west wind “the life of autumn”, “the sister of spring”, “the wild spirit” and so on. Thus, show the unrestrained power in front of the readers vividly.

4 The Syntactic Level

By analysis of the inversion, repetition and rhetorical question in this poem, we know clearer about the relationship between forms and contents.

4.1 Inversion

Inversion means break the normal order of sentences in order to achieve a certain artistic effect or in pursuit of rhythm. eg.:

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low

These two lines located in the last line of the second stanza in Chapter one and the first line of the third stanza. We can clearly see these two lines are related. The normal order should be: Who chariotest the winged seeds to their dark wintry bed where they lie cold and low（驾车把长着翅膀的种子送到黑暗的冬日之床，躺在冰冷的地底）。Therefore, the inversion links the two sentences, plays an important role in continuity and adjusting the structure.

4.2 Repetition

Repetition is a common figure of speech, and its effect is to emphasize or achieve a specific effect. For instance, in the sentence: “One too like thee, tameless, and swift, and proud”, there are three “and”. The utilization of the three “and” emphasizes the rage of west wind and romanticism of writer.

4.3 Rhetorical Question

Rhetorical Question refers to a positive or negative sentence pattern by using interrogative. It is more strong to emphasize a concept by using rhetorical question rather than positive sentence and negative sentence. At the end of this poem, the “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” has encourages many people to regain confidence. The reason why this sentence is contagious is Shelley used rhetorical question in this sentence. It leaves a wide thinking space to readers and it shows Shelley’s aspiration of beautiful spring and outlook of future.

5 Conclusion

Ode to the West Wind is a classic lyric poetry of English Romantic poets, Shelley. He expressed his feeling through describing scenes in his work, and he combined the form of poems and the content of poems by utilizing many kinds of means of artistic expression. In the form of poems, Shelley combined the terza rima in Divina Commedia and the sonnet to form a new poetic form. In phonology, the basic rhyme-scheme can incarnate the integrality and compactedness of poem in structure, at the same time it can eliminate the monotonous feeling. The whole poem is rhythmic and catchy to show the character of poem which create a certain ambiance by phonology. There are a lot of figures of speech in poem such as simile and personification. Shelley showed the scenes that west wind appears at earth, sky and sea to express his feeling incisively and vividly. In addition, through the analysis of inversion, repetition and erotesis, we can strongly feel the artistic charm of the poem.

This poem expresses the poet’s love for nature, praises to the west wind’s spirit of blasting and nurturing the new things, and also expresses the optimism for the victory of the revolution in the future. Shelley use sophisticated language art techniques to perfect the implementation of the unity of the form and theme.

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附录：

Ode to the West Wind

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes:O thou

Who chariltest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odors plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!