What figures of speech are used and what do they mean in these quotes from Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind"?

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth!

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay.

In Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," the following line appears in the fourth stanza:

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

This is a metaphor. The pains and trials of life are compared to thorns and the suffering they cause the poet, to bleeding.

In the fifth and final stanza, the poet speaks to the wind:

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!

What figure of speech is used in these lines from "Ode to the West Wind" by Shelley?

The figure of speech used in Shelley's description of the Mediterranean awakening with the advent of the west wind is personification. It is also a poetic conceit (and rather an extreme one). The figure of speech used in "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, etc." is hard to classify. It seems to begin with a metaphor and change to a simile with "Like withered leaves," etc., and it is likewise a poetic conceit. 

What figure of speech is used in these lines from "Ode to the West Wind" by Shelley?

It is common for writers to find that they can no longer recognize their own thoughts after they have written them and some time has passed. Shelley is referring to the thoughts he has published which hopefully will seem fresh to others although they seem outdated to him because he has now gone further in the life of the mind. He is, of course, comparing his published writings with the dead leaves that are being blown helter-skelter by the West Wind.

What Shelley means by the West Wind wakening the Mediterranean from his summer dreams is simply that the Mediterranean is typically extremely placid during the summer months, but it can become turbulent in the fall and winter. "Wakening" means forming white caps and waves. The Mediterranean can be dangerous for sailors. Most of Homer's Odyssey is about the struggles Ulysses had with the god of the sea who was trying to prevent him from returning home after the Trojan War. Shelley himself was drowned while sailing on the Mediterranean in a storm shortly before his thirtieth birthday. He seems to have foretold his own death in the last stanza of "Adonais," the poem he wrote as an elegy to John Keats:

The breath whose might I have invoked in song
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given.
The massy earth and spheréd skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar!
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.

Can you explain these lines from "Ode to the West Wind"?

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, 30

Lull'd by the coil of his crystàlline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers 35

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!

Thou For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know 40

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

You have quoted the third stanza from this terrific poem in its entirety. Of course, there is always a danger of just looking at specific parts of a poem separately and not in the context of the poem as a whole, so when you have finished reading my response I suggest you go back and see how this stanza fits in to the poem as a whole.

This stanza begins with the poet addressing the West Wind (what is known as an apostrophe), and talking about the wind's impact on the sea. The wind is shown to stir up massive waves, disturbing the ocean as if it was waking somebody from a dream. The Mediterranean is pictured as a man asleep who is woken up by the wind's power. A much more violent picture of the wind is presented later on in the stanza, especially when the wind's impact on the Atlantic is described. The "Atlantic's level powers / Cleave themselves into chasms" in response to the wind, and its power is so great that even the "sea-blooms and the oozy woods" of the ocean "suddenly grow grey with fear" when they hear the wind coming. This stanza therefore serves to reinforce the power and majesty of the wind by focusing on how it impacts the sea.

What figure of speech is "O wild West Wind" in "Ode to the West Wind"?

Though the phrase "O wild West Wind" contains only four words, it serves as an example of three figures of speech, each of which contributes to the tone of "Ode to the West Wind": apostrophe, alliteration, and ecphonesis.

Literary apostrophe occurs when the speaker of a poem address a person who is not present or an object or idea. In this poem, the latter occurs. The speaker is in awe of the transformative powers of the West Wind. He addresses the entirety of his poem to the West Wind, begging it to hear his pleas. Of course, he doesn't actually expect the wind to answer him, which increases the tension and contributes to a desperate tone.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound. In this phrase, you hear the w sound repeated in quick succession: O wild West Wind. That repetition creates a mournful and hollow tone.

The line also arguably serves as an example of ecphonesis, which is an emotional exclamation. Though the exclamation is not completed until thirteen lines later ("hear, oh hear!"), it allows the pleading tone of the poem to be established from the beginning.

This is a great example of Shelley's mastery of poetic devices and form. In only a few words, he is able to utilize various methods for crafting a pleading and desperate tone.

Could you explain the following lines from "Ode to the West Wind"?

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion, 15

Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean, Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head 20

Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, 25

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!

You have quoted the second stanza of this poem. It can often be hard to follow the line of argument in such poems, but key to realise is that in this stanza, the wind's effect on the clouds is being described, and thus we are given a series of comparisons to explore this effect. Note the number of similes that are employed, using the word "like." For example, in lines 16-17, we are told that the clouds are shaken from heaven "like... decaying leaves... shed" from tree boughs. Likewise, the clouds are described as being "Like the bright hair uplifted from the head / Of some fierce Maenad." A Maenad was a woman in Greek mythology who performs frenzied dances in the worship of Dionysus, the god of wine. The effect of these comparisons are to convey a kind of hysteria or sense of impending doom.

In addition in this stanza, in line 28, the speaker of the poem addresses the wind directly, imploring the wind to "hear" his words. The impact of this is to create an invocation, as if the speaker were addressing a God, and therefore suggesting that humans are powerless in the face of such might and majesty.

What figures of speech does Shelley use and what is he saying in these lines from "Ode to the West Wind"?

(1) "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"

(2) "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, / Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth."

In his poem, "Ode to the West Wind," Percy Shelley conveys his message(s) through the use of various figures of speech and literary devices.

In the poem, the speaker discusses both the constructive and destructive powers of the wind. He praises the wind and attempts to communicate with it, imploring the wind to hear him.

He wishes the wind could lift, carry, and push him, as it does dead leaves, clouds, and waves. This suggests he longs for freedom, which is symbolized by the blowing wind. It can also be interpreted as the speaker's desire to die and, in doing so, be free from the hardships of life.

He says, "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" In these lines, Shelley uses a metaphor to compare the difficulties of life to the thorns of a plant. The speaker feels burdened and oppressed by life.

The word fall and the mental images it evokes contrasts with the sense of freedom suggested by the free-floating, flying wind, which the narrator desperately seeks to experience. He longs for the liberation of being carried by the wind, but is woefully tethered to the earth and life.

The word bleed emphasizes the speaker's suffering. He is not happy in his life which, as suggested by the metaphor of thorns, is painful. He seeks freedom from his pain, and by extension, possibly from life itself.

His desire to be carried away by the wind can either be interpreted as a longing for freedom, or as a desire to die, which is, in a way, the ultimate freedom.

What is Percy Bysshe Shelley conveying in these selected lines from "Ode to the West Wind"?

"I fall upon the thorns of life I bleed" (line 54)
"Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth;" (lines 63-64)
"Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams/ The blue Mediterranean, where he lay," (Lines 29-3)

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) stands out as a great thinker and poet of the Romantic literary movement who has had a powerful influence lasting well into modern day. However, in his own short lifetime, he did not experience success and much of his work was shunned because of his then-unconventional political and religious ideas.

His poem “Ode to the West Wind” is a great example of two key elements of Romanticism: emotional exuberance and inspiration drawn from the natural world. Let’s start with some background on the poet’s life that may shed light on our understanding of the lines you quote, as well as the natural phenomena that inspired this particular poem.

As a schoolboy at Eaton, Shelley was a poor student, and he also suffered from the daily torment of bullying from older boys, due in part to his refusal to participate in a form of servitude imposed by older students on younger ones which was typical of English boarding schools. As a writer, Shelley expressed philosophical ideas that blacklisted him to publishers. He wrote about nonviolent resistance, he did not believe in monarchy as a form of government, and he had some atheistic ideas. Publishers were afraid of repercussions, so his work did not reach a wide audience during his lifetime. This fact is relevant to our understanding of the final lines of the poem.

Shelley was inspired to write “Ode to the West Wind” in Italy, on a very windy autumn day that also brought hail, thunder, and lightning. In this ode (a lyric poem addressed to a particular person or idea), he personifies the West Wind, the “Wild Spirit” of autumn, which gathers up “vapors” (moisture) from the earth in order to bring rain, and which plays a powerful role in the change of the seasons.

The poem has five short parts. The lines for which you have requested help appear in Parts III, IV, and V. In order to provide insight on the meaning of the lines you quoted, we need to have a look at them in the context of the rest of the poem and in the order in which they appear.

In Part I, Shelley introduces the West Wind as “the breath of Autumn’s being,” a force that moves the seasons from summer into autumn. We encounter the very vivid imagery of dead leaves being blown by the wind as if fleeing from an “enchanter” (a wizard). The wind becomes the “chariot driver” of “winged seeds.” He takes them to their “wintry bed” where they will lie dormant “like a corpse within its grave” until the Spring wind, his “azure [blue] sister,” arrives and blows “Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth” (a clarion is a narrow and shrill kind of trumpet), waking up the seeds and “Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in the air.”

What a great image and simile we have here of fluffy springtime pollen, which can look like woolly sheep, being blown into a pasture made not of grass but air. In the last two lines of Part I, Shelley calls the West Wind “Destroyer and preserver,” for the wind of autumn not only shakes the trees and blows away autumn leaves, but also takes seeds to the places where they will remain dormant until they are return to life in the next season.

Part II requires a little background knowledge of Greek Mythology. Shelley writes that the “locks of the approaching storm” are spread across the sky “Like the bright hair uplifted from the head / Of some fierce Maenad…” In Greek mythology, the Maenads are female devotees of the god of wine, Dionysus, known for their wild and frenzied behavior. Here we can picture the stormy sky with streaks of lightning and whirling clouds, shaking out its “hair” like one of these madwomen.

Part III begins with a set of lines with which you’d like some help, lines 29-33:

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave’s intenser day.

The West Wind, which brings autumn, wakes up the Mediterranean Sea that has been calm and “lulled” during the summer season by “the coils of his crystalline streams”—the sea’s own currents, next to a “pumice isle” (pumice is a kind of light, volcanic rock) in Baiae’s Bay, a place which further alludes to the summer season, as it was a favorite summer resort of Roman emperors.

The Mediterranean Sea, in the “quivering” heat refractions of summer, has seen the old palaces and towers of the isle “All overgrown with azure moss and flowers,” that is, covered with the lush cascades of fragrant flowers and foliage that grow abundantly here in summer time.

Yet at the end of Part III, we read that underwater plants hear the voice of the West Wind, “and suddenly grow gray with fear,” for they know that summer is about to end and seasonal changes are approaching for them as well.

In Part IV, Shelley makes a comparison between himself and the West Wind and prays for its help. If only he could be borne up by the wind like a leaf or cloud, sharing the “Impulse of thy strength, only less free / Than thou, O uncontrollable!...” He wishes could be airborne, or free, but does not aspire to wield the great powers of the wind.

In Line 54 of your question, “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” the poet tells the West Wind that he is suffering. In the next two lines he explains why: “A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed / One too like thee: tameless and swift, and proud.” His own unruly nature has brought him grief.

In the five short stanzas of Part V, the final section of the poem, Shelley finds a way to make peace with his own nature by uniting himself in a different way to the West Wind. He asks the subject of his ode for help: “Make me thy lyre, even as a forest is: / What if my leaves are falling like its own!” In other words, let me be like a stringed instrument whose voice the wind can bring to the world. If my thoughts fall, like dead leaves in a forest, let the West Wind carry them aloft.

Lines 63-64 of your question, “Drive my dead thoughts over the universe / Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!” need to be considered the context of the lines that follow, “And, by incantation of this verse, / Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth / Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!” Shelley asks the West Wind to immortalize his words, to let them take on a new life after he is gone.