of paper and leaves on a tree. He also wishes he himself could have a spirit as fierce and robust as the West Wind and powerfully blow his ideas around the world.

In this poem, Shelley, a radical, is feeling some despair. He believed in the ideals of the French Revolution, but that revolution had been defeated. England, too, seemed further away than ever from going in radical direction. In fact, a few months before he wrote this poem in October of 1819, the Peterloo Massacre took place when cavalry officers charged a mass group of protesters demanding more representation in Parliament, killing 18. The message of equality and brotherhood Shelley believed in seemed not to be reaching the world.

In the last stanza of the poem, Shelley calls on the West Wind to spread his word. He wants the wind to spread the music of his words and asks if his written words are falling like leaves from forest trees:

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The Romantic poets were deeply enamored with the ideas of revolution, as well as with the natural world. It is no surprise, then, that Shelley uses the natural world as the basis for his discussion of revolution and its forces in his poem "Ode to the West Wind."

Among the most prominent details that suggest this as a poem of revolution is the title of the poem itself. The westward direction of the wind points to America, which had recently undergone a revolution. Additionally, America was seen as a 'wild' place by the British. This, as well as the language within the poem, paints the west wind as a destructive force—one that had the power to tear down existing structures and institutions so that the spring wind would then be able to rebuild something greater and more beautiful in its place.

However, this is not the full extent of Shelley's message. There is also a greater discussion of poetry within "Ode to the West Wind," and you can find many themes suggestive of the poet's power. While this might appear to simply suggest that, like the West wind, the poet must undergo periods of destruction and rebirth, it is also important to note Shelley's own ideas regarding the power of poetry, and therefore poets, in helping with the political process.

In the end, this amounts to "Ode to the West Wind" being a poem that paints a broad picture of the poet as having the ability to institute revolutionary change with his words. It paints poems themselves as primal forces that sweep through the minds of those who hear them to enact social justice and change.

In "Ode to the West Wind," Shelley is comparing the process and power of nature with the process and power of poetry. This is a Romantic poem which directly expresses the link between the "outer" world of nature and the "inner" world of the mind of the poet. Many Romantic poets explored this link, seeking such a deep connection that the line between inner/outer would become blurred. 

The west wind brings autumn and, at the poem's end, the hope of spring. Shelley parallels the regeneration of the seasons (autumn - winter - spring) with his own poetic renewal. This can mean that if he is in the midst of a creative slump (winter), a wellspring of inspiration could be soon too follow. The analogy with the changing of seasons could also be comparable to social renewal.

Shelley also supposed/hoped that his poetry would be appreciated after he was gone. Thus, his poems would have another "season" of life. This is stated in the last lines of the poem. 

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse, 

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! (63-67)

His hope is that his poetry, like the inevitable spring of nature, will be reborn. There are two subtle puns that express this connection. The wind also refers to breath (life) and the leaves can mean the leaves of the trees as well as the leaves (pages) of a book. The wind will "scatter" his "leaves" and his words will be reborn. 

In the penultimate stanza of "Ode to the West Wind," Shelley implores the wind to "Scatter" his words like "Ashes and sparks" from a fire to an "unawakened Earth." In other words, he wants his poetry to be heard by as many people as possible, and he wants his poetry to awaken people to the ideas therein.

In the final stanza, Shelley asks the rhetorical question: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" The implication here is that the winds of winter, which he hopes will "Scatter" his words far and wide, will precede rebirth and growth, as implied by the season of "Spring." Shelley wants his words, meaning his poetry, to inspire this rebirth and growth.

In a more general sense, the idea of spring following winter could also convey the message that difficult times, represented by winter, don't last forever. These difficult times must necessarily, eventually, be followed by better times—represented by spring.

Shelley's idealism is reflected most strongly in the fourth and fifth cantos of “Ode to the West Wind.” In canto 4, he practically begs the west wind to infuse him with its sublime power and lift him from the slough of despond into which he has fallen. Shelley's belief in the redemptive power of nature and all it represents—political as well as artistic transformation—is nothing if not idealistic.

Shelley may be wracked by depression after a number of personal tragedies and setbacks in his life, but despite everything, he still somehow manages to cling to the hope that both he and the society in which he lives will be radically transformed.

Shelley's idealism is also much in evidence in canto 5, where, in an astonishing request, he explicitly enjoins the west wind to make of him a lyre, an instrument for radical moral and political change. That Shelley should believe in the possibility of change after everything that's happened to him and the causes in which he so passionately believes is extraordinary enough. That he should believe himself to be the instrument of change through his poems and political pamphlets is, if anything, even more remarkable and a testimony to his undimmed idealism.

In this poem, Percy Bysshe Shelley conceives of the "West Wind" as a force that will drive away the wasted detritus of the old year (i.e., the dead leaves which fall in the autumn) and thereby make possible a new era of growth and creativity (i.e., spring, when the snows melt and new flowers and plants can grow on the land the wind had cleared).

First, then, we see Shelley's idealism through his espousal of the belief that new life and beauty can result from the seeds in the ground, which are buried "like a corpse within its grave" in the autumn and winter. Death imagery abounds—the year is described as "dying" with the "closing night" figured as a "vast sepulchre" that vaults over the earth. Yet, there is hope, even promise, of new life to come.

Second, we see Shelley's idealism in the belief that such a transformation can be wrought within himself as well. It seems that he has experienced a failure of creative impulse or inspiration, and he asks the West Wind to "Drive [his] dead thoughts over the universe / Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!" He believes that he can experience, aided by the West Wind, a kind of creative and personal renewal. He wishes for the wind to "Scatter ... [his] words among mankind" like ashes from a dying fire. He hopes to be renewed and restored to life by the wind's power, just as nature is, and the belief that such a thing is possible is quite idealistic.

Shelley's vision of his own success and glory as an artist can reflect a sense of idealism.  The transformative power of nature is what inspires Shelley to see his own capacity for greatness as an artist.  He seeks to create art on the level as it would be as fundamental to human lives as nature is.  This involves a sense of idealism regarding his own capacity for creation, and Shelley invokes images that bring this idea to full realization. For example, the carrying of "the leaves" and "dead thoughts" are what he wishes that the West Wind carries with it as far as possible to maximize his impact and his ability as an artist.  The idea that Shelley will be appreciated over time in immortality is where Shelley's optimism comes to full fruition.

In the poem 'Ode to the West Wind' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet idealises the wind in the beginning of the poem, talking about the power of the wind and it's other attributes. He is referring to a little more than a weather definiiton of the wind here. Shelley also draws on the ideals presented in classical literature of the wind representing spiritual ideas such as the way in which it can be inspiring to the imagination. As in Emily Bronte's wind poem also, he harks back to the tradition of Greece and Rome where it also represents the soul and the spirit. later in the poem, the poet is not so fresh and idealistic, having been tempered by Time, Sorrow and the hurdles of life.