In “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley uses personification to describe the West Wind. However, the personification keeps changing throughout the poem.
In the beginning, the poet personifies the West Wind as a Supernatural being, who embodies both anger and mercy, life and death. The wind is like a force that cannot be seen yet everything is controlled by it.
Shelley considers the wind as “Preserver and Destroyer,” a term that evokes spiritual imaginations.
Next the poet personifies the wind with Death, as it turns the leaves into “ghosts” which are”pestilence-stricken.” In addition phrases like “decaying” and “sepulcher” also symbolise the spirit of death. Yet, the poet asks the West Wind to “lift” him up that symbolises its positive side as supernatural being.
In the final lines, the poet describes the west as having a “lyre“, depicting that the West Wind has poetic characteristics as well. It is aeolian harp that “plays” lyrics. So both the poet and the wind are the same.
In “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley uses personification to describe the West Wind. However, the personification keeps changing throughout the poem.
Read about the Romantic Poetry.