Discuss Shelley as a revolutionary Romantic poet from your reading of "Ode to the West Wind" and "To a Skylark"

 Percy Bysshe Shelley, a Romantic poet, is also called a rebel for his idea of revolution in his poetry. As The French Revolution dominated all politics in those years, unlike Wordsworth or Coleridge, Shelley never abandoned the ideals of the revolution. His poems like “Ode to the West Wind” or “Ode to a Skylark” demonstrate this combination of romantic and revolutionary features to make them even more powerful in creating a permanent effect in the reader’s heart. Shelley’s Romanticism is inspired by the joy and emotion found in the natural beauty that ignites his imagination whereas his revolutionary force holds optimism in changing the world with the power of his poetry.

The lyrics of this ode set him apart from other lyrical poets. “Ode to the West Wind” shows how an approach towards a storm stirs a strong emotion that awakens other important sleeping emotions in the poet’s heart. The whole illustration demonstrates how the existence “burst into flame” surrounding the ‘first strong’ emotion. And with this, the union of a human being, the poet, with nature takes place. In addition, that man comes to know nature’s stormy and peaceful characters. This realization helps him to mingle wholeheartedly with nature to sing for promoting “the restoration of mankind.” Similarly, in “To a Skylark,” the beauty of the music of the bird moves the poet into an unparalleled joy that he believes can open the door to divine music inside him.

In the first stanza of “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley says that the West Wind drives away the last sign of life in trees and also helps to rejuvenate the world by allowing the seeds to grow in the spring. In this way, the West Wind acts as a destroyer and preserver. He tells the Wind to take the message to the sleeping world that if winter comes, spring cannot be far behind. After bad days come good days. Here he says, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" This indicates Shelley’s hope for a better world. Shelley is forever searching, following a vague, beautiful vision, forever sad and forever unsatisfied, and always pursuing an ideal, hoping for something better that is to come. He sees in Nature something inspiring and spiritual. In all his writing, Shelley believes that he can pave the way for a better society. Even in his shorter pieces, the social ideal is the central one. Shelley is one of the greatest English nature poets, but he is also one of the greatest political writers. For example, “Ode to the West Wind” is, on the surface, a poem of nature, but in fact, it sings of the revolution that is to come. It prophesies the destruction of the old world and the coming of a new world. At the beginning of the poem, the poet says the bird is a heavenly bird and it is a joyful spirit, its life is not sorrowful like that of a human being. The life of a human being is full of sorrow and suffering and it is rare to find ecstasy without pain. Our happiness is often mapped by memories of part affections and sorrows, and the painful uncertainly of what is to come in the future. Man is a creature that looks "before and after". He is subject to weariness and satiety so that he can never enjoy happiness perennially. But the Skylark knows on satiety. It is the very embodiment of perennial delight, ever fresh and full of the west and unwearied in its enjoyment of happiness. It keeps the hope for pure joy burning in men.

In the "Ode to the West Wind" Shelley is seen as a rebel and he wants a revolution. He desires a social change and the West Wind is his symbol of change. In the last two stanzas, Shelley is speaking directly to the wind, asking for its power, to life him like a leaf, or a cloud and make him his companion in its wanderings. He asks the wind to take his thoughts and spread them all over the world so that the youth is awoken by his ideas. Actually, the West Wind acts as a driving force for change and rejuvenation in the human and natural world. And, it is the symbol of revolution. This mood becomes evident when he talks of the wintry bed and the wind blowing through the jungle and producing music out of the dead leaves. Shelley requests it to create music out of his heart and to inspire him to write great poetry, which may create a revolution in the hearts of men. He wants the Wind to scatter his revolutionary message in the world, just as it scatters cries and sparks from a burning fire. His thoughts may not be as fiery as they once were, but they still have the power to inspire men. We also find Shelley’s revolutionary zeal in the ode, “To a Skylark”. According to Shelley, the bird, Skylark, that pours spontaneous melody from heaven and sours higher and higher can never be a bird. It is for the poet, a joyful spirit that begins its upward flight at sunrise and becomes invisible in the evening like the stars of the sky that become invisible in daylight. Moreover, it is compared with the beams of the moon whose presence is rather felt than seen. It's a heavenly bird and by singing it spreads its influence through the world. So the poet wants to experience half the gaiety of the bird and then he would sing with such excellent poetic ecstasy to the people of the world who listen to him.

Shelley’s poetry has two different moods. In one he is the revolutionary reformer, who wants to change the old order and find universal happiness. In the second he is a great Nature lover, almost merging himself with the beauty of the world around him, and the author of some poems that are regarded as the most beautiful Romantic nature poems in the English language. Both of the above-mentioned poems demonstrate these revolutionary and Romantic moods.