To a Skylark, and Ode to the West Wind

hello everyone!
i am having a little trouble....i am not very good with poetry
i am trying to analyze these two poems of Shelley's, and come up with a commanality between the two. So far i have only been able to come up with a very boring theme of nature. To me, Shelley seems to use nature as his metaphor. In 'to a sklark', he compares his poetic self to the bird, and in 'ode to the west wind' he compares the wind to his poetry..?
i know, not very good at all..but like i said im stuck...
any advice???? please! :)

Me too! I was just going to make a topic about this! I really need help with To A Skylark!

weird, i'm writing the same paper. try exploring the symbolism of the leaves in "ode to the west wind," and the season of autumn.

P.B. Shelley addresses the skylark as "blithe spirit" in the opening stanza. A uniqe spirit of uncompounded joy, not tasted by the substantial world, has been metamorphosed to a bird . An abstruct virtue of pure delight is presumed to have taken the physical form. So the poet says ," Bird thou never wert".

"And singing stii dost soar, and soaring ever singest"---The epigramic appreciation is about the skylark pictured by P.B Shelley. The skylark keeps singing incessantly in its neverending gyration. Its singing and soaring are in perfect symmetry. Its physical motion and vocal function are meant for each other.

Lark is the Spirit of Delight that descends in the shape of a bird. Unlike men, it is free, untouched by pain or grief or dullness . Its joy is unearthly, its sweetness is above the touch of death. The songs of human beings are always wistful, because human life is shrouded by sadness and suffering . Man always looks backward and forward, and therefore, his songs are always tinged with weal and woe. The song of the skylark is better than the philosophy contained in the books. Finally, the poet tenders his entreaty to the skylark to teach him at least half of its gladness so that the world may listen to his poetical message with rapt attention.

The Ode To the West Wind is mainly an invocation to the West Wind in its two-fold function that of a destroyer and of a preserver . The poet, conscious of his limitation, solicits the share of impetus of the wind with a view to gaining the spert to breathe in trumpet-tone of regeneration to the dead world.

Shelley's poetic creed is permeated by a brooding spirit. He is concerned about the wild spirit of Nature. Shelley looks upon the seasonal gale as an impetus to saturate his sedimented thoughts so that he can strew them over the slumbering masses in order to establish athbetter social order. He expresses his zeal to translate himself a dry leaf so as to feel with his body and blood the magnitude of the impetuosity of the Autamnal Wind.

The West Wind as a poem presents a kelidoscopic panorama. The tempestuous gale plays its impact on land. in the sky, in the acquatic world and finally in the poet's mind.When it stages its advent in one sphere, its impact can well be felt in the subsequent realm. The Terza Rima scheme has effected the motion all the more.
The poet, conscious of his limitations, solicits the share of the impetus of the autamnal gale in order to take to it as purgation. Shelley, who has ever longed for a sound social order, is infatuated by the wild aspect of Nature. The West Wind appears to him as the driving force, dectated by the cosmic law. Shelley is up and doing in using the force as his instrument to bring about topsy turvy to the convention.

The prophetic optimism is registered at the culmination of the verse. The present world infested with orthodoxies, dogmats and malpractices are sure to be substituted for a millieu of amity; and the west wind is the manifestation of the ensuing change. "Winter"the season of drabness is given to herald the "vernal green". Every dark cloud must have a silver lining. The rhetoric question in the final phase is poet's bold prognostication of a coveted millennium.

Thanks Mr Guha for your enlightened views on Ode to the West Wind...they have been thoughtfully derived. However, i would like to bring to your notice a few points that have been nagging me...can you please enlighten me a little more?

In post #4, you have commented that Shelley's Skylark is "A uniqe spirit of uncompounded joy, not tasted by the substantial world, has been metamorphosed to a bird ". However, as history suggests, the poem was inspired by an evening walk in the country with Mary Shelley, and describes the appearance and song of a skylark they come upon. The setting of the poem is in Livorno, Italy, in June 1820. It is therefore, evident, that Shelley's skylark is a real bird that forced him to poetic musings. Metamorphosis, in this context, does not seem likely. Also, i am rather doubtful whether an abstract entity like a spirit can undergo metamorphosis at all. :eek2: It is likely that Shelley is metaphorising here, rather than metamorphosing. Kindly clarify...

In post #5, you have used a term called "epigramic appreciation". can we use the word epigramic, or will it be epigrammatic? I have consulted several lexicons, however, none of them seem to have acknowledged the existence of the former word.

Awaiting your response....