| Question (1): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn's being ...... Pestilence - stricken multitudes.
i) How is the west wind the "breath of Autumn's being?"
ii) What does the poet imagine the west wind to be?
iii) What has become of the leaves in autumn? Where does the west wind carry them?
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Answer: i) The west wind is the "breath of Autumn's being" because it becomes, signaling the onset of the autumn season.
ii) The poet imagines the west wind to be a magician from whose unseen presence the diseased leaves fly away like ghosts from him.
iii) The leaves have become "diseased" in autumn. They are therefore yellow, black, and unnaturally red and have fallen from the trees. The west wind carries them underground where they lie like corpses in their graves.
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| Question (2): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Who O thou chariotest to their dark wintry bed .... Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth.
i) Where does the west wind drive the winged seeds and how do these lie?
ii) How does Shelley personify spring?
iii) What happens when the personified spring sounds out her trumpet?
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Answer: i) The west wind drives the winged seeds underground where they lie like the corpses in their graves.
ii) Shelley personifies spring as a cowherd or shepherdess who drivers her flock of sheep- here buds above the ground so that they grow healthy and beautiful.
iii) When the personified spring blows her trumpet, the dreaming earth is full of sweet - smelling flowers and there is beauty all around in the spring season.
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| Question (3): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion .... shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean.
i) How is the west wind seen blowing in the sky?
ii) What does the west wind do to the clouds and how?
iii) What form do the clouds assume after they are plucked like earth's decaying leaves and how do they fall on the earth?
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Answer:
i) The west wind is seen like a violent and wild storm when it blows in the sky.
ii) The west wind appears to pluck the clouds from the entangled branches of trees whose roots are in the ocean and branches up in the sky as it seems to pluck the dead leaves off the trees on the earth.
iii) After they are plucked from the tall trees going up to the heavens, these assume the form of menacing angels of rain and lightning. Then they fall in black rain and fire and hailstorm.
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| Question (4): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Angels of rain .... The locks of the approaching storm.
i) What are the angels of rain and lightning?
ii) How does the poet describe these "angels" through a similie to give a menacing posture to them?
iii) In what way does the west wind act in this closing night?
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Answer:
i) Angels of rain and lightning are the clouds which have been plucked like dead leaves from the heaven - high trees. They spread from the horizon to the zenith.
ii) The poet describes these dark and menacing clouds with the help of a similie - Maenad, the follower and worshipper of Bacchus, the Greek God of wine, worships him in a frenzied posture moving her head and shaking her loose hair wildly. These clouds move like those black hair threatening rain, lightning and hailstorm,
iii) The west wind acts as a dirge or funeral song, singing for the dying year to which the closing night will be like a dome of a vast burial ground. The clouds are arched over it with their full strength of vapours. Out of them will pour out black rain, fire and hair. |
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| Question (5): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Thou dirge, of the dying year...... Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst.
i) Who is the 'dirge' and, for whom is it meant?
ii) How is the "closing night" described?
iii) How is the image of something "dreadful" built up by the poet?
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Answer:
i) The sound of the west wind is the dirge or funeral song. It is meant and is being sung for the dying year.
ii) The "closing night" is like a vast tomb, where vapours have been built up like arches, and will soon come down in rain and lightning.
iii) The image of something "dreadful" is built up with the use of words like "dirge", "dying", "black rain", "fire", "a vast sepulchre".
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| Question (6): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Then, for whose path the Atlantic's level powers.... and tremble and despoil themselves.
i) How is the Mediterranean sea described as a vast sleepy snake?
ii) How does the mighty Atlantic face the west wind?
iii) What is the effect of the west wind on the sea plants at the bottom of the sea?
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Answer:
i) The Mediterranean sea is described as a vast sleepy snake that dreams of old civilization (palaces and towers) rich in flowers and vegetation.
ii) The mighty Atlantic's level surface cuts itself into chasms to make way for the mighty west wind.
iii) The sea plants - the sapless foliage - start to tremble on hearing the sound of the west wind. Their trembling and shivering leads to despoiling and shedding themselves of their leaves etc.
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| Question (7): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be .... As thus with thee in prayers in my sore need.
i) How would Shelley behave if he were a young boy?
ii) Why does he now seek the help of the west wind? What does he want the west wind to do?
iii) What exactly does Shelley want the west wind to do for him?
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Answer:
i) If Shelley were a young boy, he would have competed with the west wind and would have probably been faster than him and outstripped him.
ii) The poet now seeks the help of the west wind because he has many problems in his life (fallen on the thorns of life). A heavy weight of time has seemingly chained him down and the weight makes him bend and bow. He want the 'west wind to lift him like a leaf, a cloud, a wave'
iii) Shelley wants the west wind to spread his thoughts over the earth, like ashes and sparks from an un-extinguished hearth (fireplace). |
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| Question (8): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Make me thy lyre ..... Sweet though in sadness
i) How does the poet want the West Wind to treat him?
ii) In what way does the poet see the "forest" and himself?
iii) How will the sad, autumnal tone be sweet?
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Answer:
i) The poet wants the west wind to make him his lyre and produce a harmonious tune through the forest - an autumnal tone. It will be sad but nevertheless, sweet.
ii) The poet sees the "forest" as a musician plucking at the trees and driving a sad but sweet music. The poet sees himself as a musical instrument out of which the West Wind's mighty harmonies will produce sad but sweet music.
iii) The sad musical notes directly appeal to the heart. Whatever touches the heart is true and appealing. Whatever is true and appealing is beautiful, soothing and sweet. |
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| Question (9): |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe.... Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind.
i) What does the poet request the west wind in this stanza?
ii) Explain the simile used by Shelley in this stanza?
iii) What does " If winter comes, can spring be far behind" mean?
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Answer:
i) The poet requests the west wind to spread his "thoughts" over the universe like the withered leaves to quicken a new birth.
ii) Shelley's thoughts are being compared to ashes and sparks from an un-extinguished hearth.
The west wind should scatter Shelley's thoughts and ideas like ashes and sparks amongst mankind, to quicken a new birth. So the poet is compared to the hearth and his thoughts and ideas are compared to ashes and sparks.
iii) This line has now become a cliche. It denotes optimism. The poet is trying to convey that winter is followed by spring. Winter denotes sadness, gloom, troubles, pessimism, whereas spring denotes joy, happiness, brightness and optimism. Thus sadness is always followed by happiness. |
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| Question (10): |
Mention some characteristics of an "Ode". How does "Ode to the west wind" reveal these characteristics?
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Answer: An Ode is an elaborately structured lyrical poem, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument. "Ode to the west wind" is indeed an elaborately structured lyrical poem. It has been divided into five verses of fourteen lines each. Each verse is further divided into stanzas of three lines each followed by a rhyming couplet. Each verse strictly follows a definite rhyme scheme i.e., aba, bcb, cdc, ded, and then a rhyming couplet.
The poet praises and glorifies the west wind, keeping the description scientifically accurate so that it is intellectual and not emotional. Lastly, the poem is lyrical and can be sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument |
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| Question (11): |
The poem has personified the west wind. What has the poet personified the west wind with?
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Answer: Shelley has personified the west wind as an enchanter, as destroyer and as preserver.
The west wind has been described as an Enchanter because on its arrival, the dead leaves become free as the ghosts do on the arrival or appearance of an enchanter or magician.
The poet then describes the west wind as a destroyer because it destroys the dead and diseased leaves.
The west wind is also the preserver as it takes the seeds to their "wintry beds" where they lie still till spring season arrives and then they sprout or germinate again.
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| Question (12): |
How does Shelley compare himself to the west wind?
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| Answer: Speed and energy are the two attributes of the west wind. The poet admires these qualities and says that he also had these qualities in his younger days. Like the west wind, he too was tameless and swift and proud. He could have outstripped the west wind. Shelley claims that if he had the vigour and vitality of his boyhood, he could still run along like the west wind ie as swiftly and as strongly.
The west wind is the destroyer as well as the preserver. Shelley feels that he has the capacity to be the same. With his poetry and great thoughts, he can help the world to get rid of all dead ideas and fill it with new ideas giving birth to a new life. His poetry thus can destroy old, outdated useless thoughts and give rise to rebirth of new ideas and a new life |
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| Question (13): |
What is Shelley's plea to the west wind? Why does he seek help from the west wind?
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| Answer: Shelley has grown old with age and the burdens of life have taken away the strength and vigour from him. In his younger days, he was as strong and swift as the west wind. Now he has lost that old spirit - he says "I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed" Moreover, he thinks that he cannot reclaim his old strength and energy himself. He needs someone powerful like the west wind to lift him "like a leaf, a cloud, a wave".
So Shelley prays to the west wind which is for him, a symbol of creation and preservation in the universe. The prays to the spirit of the west wind to become his spirit. With the help of the west wind, the poet Shelley hopes to do away with the old and dead ideas of society and give birth to new, creative ideas leading to progress and prosperity of mankind.
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| Question (14): |
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee - tameless, and swift and proud.
(a) "One too like thee' who do 'one' and thee refer to? Explain the phrase.
(b) Explain "A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed".
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Answer:
(a) 'One' refers to the poet and 'thee' to the mighty west wind. The poet is trying to say that he was also like that west wind when he was young - untamed, fast and full of pride.
(b) The poet who was once as strong as the west wind has become chained by the passage of time age and hardships of life have burdened him and his spirit is broken.
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| Question (15): |
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe.
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth
And by the incantation of this verse
Scatter, as from an unextinguished health
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind.
1. Who is the poet appealing to and what is the appeal?
2. Explain 'incantation of this verse, scatter'.
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Answer:
1. The poet is appealing to the west wind to spread his thoughts across the universe to usher in a new world to love, hope and optimize.
2. The poet tells the west wind that by carrying his words /his poem across the universe it will help in creating a new world.
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| Question (16): |
Wild spirit, which art moving every where;
Destroyer and Preserver, hear, oh, hear!
1. How is the west wind both destroyer and preserver.
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| Answer:
1. The poet describes the ferocity, strength and might of the west wind ass it blows over the land blowing away the dry and withered leaves. At the same time it carries the seeds to be buried till the east wind blows and they sprout over hills and plains. The wind also destroys the calmness of the skies and seas. Clouds are gathered and it results in thunder lightening and storm. The oceans tremble at the approach of the west wind. The west wind is an intricate part of the cycle of life and death. In its role of a preserver it can spread the words and thoughts of the poet across the universe and quicker the birth of a new world - a world of love, hope and happiness. |
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| Question (17): |
Be through my lips to unawake the earth
The trumpet of a property! O wind
If winter comes, can spring be far behind.
1. Explain what the poet means unawakened earth?
2. What is the tone of the poet in the last lines? Explain the line.
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Answer:
1. The earth is unawakened because it is unaware and ignorant. There is so much suffering and hardship due to lack of knowledge. The world needs to wake up from ignorance and misery to a new and enlightened world full of hope and happiness.
2. The poem ends on a note of optimism. The poet assures the readers that just as spring follows winter, so also happiness and joy have to follow suffering.
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