Ans: “Ode to the west wind” is a celebrated poem written by P.B Shelley who is a prominent of the romantic era. In this poem, P.B Shelly has used/applied imagery very successfully to convey his ideas. The poem is full of startling images. The images are effectively used to explain the theme of the poem clearly. They are characterized by their boldness and splendor. A critical analysis is needed to trace imagery in the poem.

Literally, imagery means imaginative language that produces pictures in the mind of people reading or listening. It conveys a word picture. It evokes an imaginative, emotional response as well as provides a vivid, specific description.

As a romantic poet, he is successful to use the images of nature to express his aspirations.

In the poem “Ode to the West Wind”, the most dominant image is the West Wind itself. Throughout the poem, the West Wind remains an immense power that destroys the useless and nourishes the useful. In it, the West Wind symbolizes a force, may be of the God or Christ-like figure or of any powerful might that could dominate even the most powerful elements of earth, fire, and water. Shelly presents evocative descriptions of the West Wind enacting its drama on the three levels of nature – the land, the sky, and the sea. The telescoping of the images that can be noticed here gives the poem a beauty of its own.

In the poem, Shelley calls the West Wind a destroyer and a preserver – destroyer of the old leaves and preserver of the seeds for future regenerations. It drives the seeds of trees and thrust them into the earth where they remain hidden during the winter. With the advent of spring, the seeds sprout. Trees of flowers and fruit grow in abundance and fill the land and hills with colors and fragrance. The wind sweeps away withered leaves of trees as quickly and mysteriously as ghosts vanish from the presence of a magician. He uses the image of an enchanter to show the driving power of the West Wind. He says —

” Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, “

In it, Shelley uses the images of three colors – ‘yellow’, ‘black’, and ‘pale’ that symbolize disease, calamity, and death. This death imagery reaches its climax when the fleeing dead leaves are compared to people rushing away ‘pestilence stricken’. The image of the ‘chariot’ is very significant.

In the poem, the image of the ‘winged seeds’ implies the expectant social order beneficial to mankind. The wind disrupts the usual order in a ‘commotion’ with ‘tangle boughs of Heaven and Ocean’. Being charmed by the power of the West Wind over the elements of earth, the entreats to the West Wind in the following way —

” lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! “

Shelley used the images of the sky, air, cloud, and lightning in the poem very skillfully. One of the most powerful images of the poem is the image of thorns which represent the hardships of life. The poet says —

” I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! “

The poem ends with the image of the cycle of seasons of spring following on the heels of winter. This image is suggestive of the autumnal decay and the barrenness of winter making the world desolate.

From the above discussion, we can say that Shelley has very skillfully used images in his wonderful poem “Ode to the West Wind”. The poem is remarkable for the kaleidoscopic fertility of images. In fact, the images add to the beauty and excellence of the poem.