Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. What is the full name of Shelley?

Ans: The full name of Shelley is Percy Bysshe Shelley.

2. To which literary age does Shelly belong?

Ans: Shelley belongs to the Romantic Age.

3. What kind of poet is Shelley?

Ans: Shelley is a romantic poet.

4. What is an ode?

Ans: An ode is a poem in which the poet addresses someone to express his inner grief.

5. What is the West Wind?

Ans: The west wind is a wind that blows from the west, in an eastward direction. In European tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds.

6. Who is destroyer? What does it destroy?

Ans: The West Wind is the destroyer. It destroys old and pestilence-stricken leaves of the trees. 

7. Why does Shelly call the West Wind a 'destroyer' as well as a 'preserver'?

Ans: Shelly calls the West Wind a 'destroyer' as well as a 'preserver' as it destroys the old leaves of the trees and preserves the seeds of the trees.

8. How is the West Wind a destroyer, and a preserver? 

Ans: For driving away the seeds and the dead leaves, West Wind plays the role of destroyer. But in the same time West Wind is called preserver for making new plants by putting the seeds under the ground.

9. What is symbol?

Ans: Symbol is a thing which stands for something else.

10. What does the West Wind symbolize?

Ans: The west wind symbolizes the power of nature and of the imagination inspired by nature.

11. When was Shelley free and uncontrollable?

Ans: Shelley was free and uncontrollable in his youth.

12. How was Shelley in his youth?

Ans: Shelley was “tameless, and swift, and proud” in his youth.

13. What made Shelley tame and weak?

Ans: The worries and agonies of life made Shelley tame and weak. 

14. Why does Shelley wish to be a leaf, a cloud or a wave of the Ocean? 

Ans: Shelley wishes to be a leaf, a cloud or a wave of the Ocean because he has fallen upon the thorns of life, and is bleeding.

15. Why does Shelley want the west wind to drive his thoughts over the universe?

Ans: Shelley wants the west wind to drive his thoughts over the universe to regenerate the mankind.

16. What does Shelly compare the wind of the spring to in 'Ode to the West Wind'? 

Ans: Shelly compares the wind to the breath of the spring in 'Ode to the West Wind'.

17. What does Shelley mean by "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

Ans: By "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" Shelley means that days of happiness come immediately after the days of sorrow.

18. Who is Meanad?

Ans: Meanad is a female follower of Bacchus who, in ancient mythology, was the god of wine.