The poet wants to share the Wind’s fierce spirit. As a radical, Shelley gloried in the wind’s ability to blow away dead ideas, represented by the leaves that have died and fallen. But the Wind doesn’t just blow away dead ideas; it also circulates fresh ideas by also blowing them all over.
Q. What does the speaker ask of the wind in Section IV?
The speaker asks the wind to “make me thy lyre,” to be his own Spirit, and to drive his thoughts across the universe, “like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth.” He asks the wind, by the incantation of this verse, to scatter his words among mankind, to be the “trumpet of a prophecy.” Speaking both in regard to the …
Table of Contents
- Q. What does the speaker ask of the wind in Section IV?
- Q. Why does Shelley call the west wind a preserver and destroyer?
- Q. Why does Shelley call the West Wind both preserver and destroyer?
- Q. What does the poet appeal to the West Wind?
- Q. What kind of life does the poet say he is leading at the time the west wind is blowing?
- Q. What does the west wind do to the cloud?
Q. Why does Shelley call the west wind a preserver and destroyer?
Answer. Shelley calls the West Wind a destroyer because it strips all the leaves off the trees, tumbles them helter-skelter and piles them up all over the landscape. That is why the West Wind is both a destroyer and preserver–a destroyer of the old and preserver of the new.
Q. Why does Shelley call the West Wind both preserver and destroyer?
Shelley concludes this opening section by calling the west wind a ‘Wild Spirit’ (recalling, perhaps, that the word spirit is derived from the Latin meaning ‘breath’, suggesting the wind) and branding it both a ‘destroyer’ and a ‘preserver’: a destroyer because it helps to bring the leaves down from the trees, but a …
Q. What does the poet appeal to the West Wind?
At last, the poet appeals to the west wind to turn him into a lyre. This way, his words can be scattered all over the world like a dead leaf for everyone through the wind. Moreover, he also asks the wind to become him.
Q. What kind of life does the poet say he is leading at the time the west wind is blowing?
miserable life
Q. What does the west wind do to the cloud?
The wind is thus a destroyer and a preserver. The west wind also sweeps along storm clouds. It is the death song of the year. With the night that closes the year will come rain, lightning, and hail; there will be storms in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
