1819 ODE TO THE WEST WIND by Percy Bysshe Shelley şiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R) DAK Upgraded Edition, Copyright 2000, DAK Industries 2000, Inc(R)şI {ODE_TO_THE_WEST_WIND ODE TO THE WEST WIND - I 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 chariotest 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! - II {ODE_TO_THE_WEST_WIND ^line 20} Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion, Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, - Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread On the blue surface of thine aery surge, Like the bright hair uplifted from the head - Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zenith's height, The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge - Of the dying year, to which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, Vaulted with all thy congregated might - Of vapors, from whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear! - III {ODE_TO_THE_WEST_WIND ^line 40} Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, - Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the wave's intenser day, - All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou For whose path the Atlantic's level powers - Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear The sapless foliage of the ocean, know - Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear! - IV {ODE_TO_THE_WEST_WIND ^line 60} 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! If even I were as in my boyhood, and could be - The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven, As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven - As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! - A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. - V {ODE_TO_THE_WEST_WIND ^line 80} Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies - Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! - 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 hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth - The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind! - - THE END