Thursday, August 18, 2011

I'm having trouble finding metaphors in "Ode to the West Wind". Can anybody help me?

Metaphor is used throughout the poem. Shelley uses the wind to represent a force in the world that will be able to spread his thoughts to the world. ter his thoughts as the wind ters leaves, clouds, and waves. The wind then becomes a metaphor for his work as a whole. That his work will kill off all the old thoughts and be a “trumpet of a prophecy” for all of mankind. The leaves come to represent thoughts. He wants his thoughts to be lifted up like leaves and tered. Leaves also refer to the thoughts that came before his, the dead thoughts. He then uses the “spring” in the last line to represent the reawakening of the earth. He believes that if his work is able to destroy the old and dead thoughts that it will be able to spark a new thought, just as the spring brings in new life. These metaphors allow the reader to relate nature to his thoughts. Shelley only uses images of nature to represent how he feels his work is a part of nature.

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