Ode to the West Wind
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Ode to the West Wind
The terza rima
Ode to the West Wind is one of the
most prized of Shelley's shorter lyrics. In it,
the poet makes exquisite use of the terza
rima. The terza rima is the verse form
employed by Dante in his Divine Comedy.
The meter of it is predominantly iambic
pentameter. The stanza is made up of
interlinking three-line unit with the rhyme
scheme ababcbcdc, continuing thus to the
end of the stanza.
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Ode to the West Wind
The theme of the poem
Shelley's desire to make heard his
ideas for political and social reform is
usually seen as the main theme of the
poem. There is also another way to read
the poem biographically, as the personal
consolation that a Romantic poet is
offering himself, because he is aging and
has lost his adolescent ecstasies and he
needs a rebirth of energy and ecstasy.
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Ode to the West Wind
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Style analysis
The nature of the interlinking of the units and the effects
produced by this interlinking can be studied as we read the
lyric:
1) The interlinking of the three-line units (tercet) goes well
with the nature of the west wind, which is both a preserver
and a destroyer. Through this verse form, the poet reminds
the reader that the west wind keeps on destroying something
such as the “a” rhyme in the first unit and preserves
something such as the “b” rhyme of the first unit in the second
unit and such process of preserving and destroying keeps
going on and on until the entirely new rhyme scheme of the
last unit (couplet) is established. That reminds us that the
preserving and destroying process of the revolution will be
going on and on until an entirely new world is established.
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Ode to the West Wind

Style analysis
The nature of the interlinking of the units and the effects produced by this
interlinking can be studied as we read the lyric:
2) Another striking artistic feature of this lyric is the unusual rhyme scheme
of the couplet which ends the stanza. The stanza ends not with a tercet
(three-line unit) but with a couplet. The ode is made up of 5 stanzas
constructed like the first except the rhymes of the concluding couplets of
all but the lst and the 5th are true rhymes. When there is no observable
justification for the false rhymes, it is a fault; when it is encountered in the
work of an obviously conscientious craftsman like Shelley, one is obliged
to conclude that the poet is introducing slight irregularities in the ordered
harmonies of his structure to indicate that the west wind represents a
never-ending cycle of birth and death, of order within seeming disorder,
and even of beauty with terror, of the pain we must all bear, and of the
obligation of the poet to be more than a painter of pretty pictures. We will
inevitably meet some difficulty in the process of revolution which is bound
to win.
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