2 quotations linked to Ode to the West Wind by or associated with Percy Bysshe Shelley, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
The seasonal image turns hardship into a temporary phase: decline can contain the possibility of renewal even when that renewal is not yet visible.
Source note: Final line of Ode to the West Wind; the changing seasons become a metaphor for historical and personal renewal.
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being.”
Shelley turns the wind into a living seasonal force, opening a poem where destruction, preservation, sound, and renewal are woven together.
Source note: Ode to the West Wind, opening line; Shelley addresses the autumn wind directly.