Ode to the West Wind
Appreciation guidance
Ode to the west wind is Shelley's masterpiece. Compared with ordinary lyric short poems, it is longer. In addition, the scenes in the poem are constantly changing and the images are dense. You may feel dazzled when reading, so you should pay attention to grasping the clues of the poem when explaining.
This poem was conceived in a forest on the banks of the Arno River near Florence, and Shelley himself explained its origin: "On that day, the warm and exciting wind that gave birth to the storm gathered the clouds that often poured down the torrential autumn rain. Unsurprisingly, the rain started at sunset, and the storm was accompanied by hail, accompanied by magnificent lightning and thunder unique to southern alps. " Writing about the great power of nature when the storm comes has become the starting point of this poem.
The first section is about how the fierce west wind destroys everything, sweeps away the fallen leaves and blows the seeds into the ground until spring comes. There are two places in the poem that may be difficult to understand, which need to be explained: "winged seeds" refer to those seeds that are spread far away by the wind; "Sister of the blue sky" refers to the fresh east wind in spring, and the poet calls the east wind the sister of the west wind to show the connection between the two. In this section, the poet uses the technique of color contrast. When describing the autumn swept by the west wind, the phrase "yellow, black, gray and red as consumption" rendered the colorful decline scene when the leaves withered, while the words "ghost", "wizard", "plague" and "dark winter bed" were used incisively and vividly. But when it comes to "spring", the color of language tends to be soft and bright-"color and fragrance fill mountains and rivers". A poet is a master of using "color". In these lines, the changing process of nature from withering to glory is vividly presented. Finally, the poet named the ubiquitous west wind as "destroyer and protector", which contains a specific understanding that the west wind is the destroyer of the old world and creates a new world, which is the dialectical law of nature's cycle.
In the second quarter, the perspective is pulled to the sky, and how the west wind blows through the dark clouds and forms a storm. This section is the strangest and most magnificent part of this poem. At the beginning, the clouds scattered by the wind were compared to the dead leaves on the earth, between the first and second segments, thus forming a natural transformation. The use of words such as confusion, tearing and entanglement also strengthens a sense of turbulence. Broken clouds, like fallen leaves, are breaking away from those invisible "branches" In the following verse, the poet used a bolder imagination to compare the clouds falling in the air to the so-called "crazy girl" whose original text is "Maynard", which is a character in Greek mythology. In ancient paintings, she has the image of angry hair. The image of rage and the long hair scattered around accurately show the natural wonders of Feiyun, and also hint at the mystery and danger of nature. It should also be noted that although the poet's imagination is bold, he actually follows some scientific common sense, such as the formation of heavy rain, the transpiration and condensation of water vapor, and the role of "electricity" in the cloud. As a romantic poet, Shelley not only has rich emotion and imagination, but also has great interest in physics, chemistry, electricity and other natural sciences. In this poem, the praise of natural forces is combined with the understanding of nature.
In the third section, the perspective returns to the ocean from high altitude, writing that the west wind awakens the ocean and makes the plants on the seabed tremble. When describing the calm of the ocean before the arrival of the west wind, the poet imagined that "it has been sleeping for a whole summer", and in his dream, he also saw "ancient palaces and pavilions". Readers seem to be able to see the reflections of pavilions rippling in the clear water, forming a sparkling beauty. Then, the sea seems to have a personality. When the west wind comes, it actively splits itself, revealing plants hidden deep in the seabed. This kind of description is very strange, which seems to come from the poet's grand imagination, but it also conforms to some natural law. It is said that aquatic plants at the bottom of oceans, rivers and lakes have the same reaction to seasonal changes as land plants, so the arrival of the west wind will definitely have an impact on them.
In the last three sections, the west wind runs between heaven and earth. The fourth section, the poet returns to himself. He called the west wind to take me away and floated freely in the world like leaves, clouds and water waves. In order to express the speed of the west wind and the urgency of my mood, the poet used a series of the same sentence patterns-"If I am a dead leaf, you are floating around", "If I am a cloud, I can fly with you", "If I have your pulse" and "If I can dance like Feng Ling when I was a teenager"-to form a sonorous and flying rhythm, "When I am a water wave, a leaf, in the fifth verse, Finally, the famous aphorism appeared in the form of rhetorical questions, as if to ask the reader directly, as if the west wind stopped, and the connotation of poetry suddenly became extremely meaningful.
From the earth, the sky to the ocean, and then to "I", between man and nature, the poet developed his imagination, which integrated natural phenomena, scientific concepts, understanding of the universe and passion for life, and fully demonstrated the spiritual world expanded by the poet. In addition to depicting the images of the west wind, the poet also uses exclamations and overlapping sentences, especially the first three verses all end with "Oh, listen", so that the five verses are independent but interrelated, just like the west wind rolling freely in the sky.
Ode to the west wind has different interpretations of the theme of this poem, just like the tiger mentioned above. Generally speaking, the writing of this poem was related to the movement of the British working class at that time. Shelley expressed his praise for the revolutionary forces that destroyed everything by describing the west wind. However, there is also a saying that the connotation of this poem is more complicated and does not need to be explained from the political level. Perhaps this is the object of the poet's praise, the irresistible force of nature, and the passion of destruction and creation contained in the rotation of seasons.
Teaching suggestion
First, preview guidance
Ode to the west wind is Shelley's famous lyric poem, but its length is long, its images are dense, and its clues seem a little confusing. Let the students read the poem silently first, and then read it aloud, trying to catch the clue of the development of the poem.
Second, classic reading.
1. Introduce some background of this poem, including the poet's situation, historical conditions and the origin of writing, so as to pave the way for a better understanding of the work.
Although this is a lyric poem, it is difficult to understand because of the constant change of space and scene. Let the students recite each paragraph of the poem separately first, and then teach the content of each paragraph in detail, so as to grasp the internal clues of the development of the poem.
3. In order to show the destructive power of the west wind and the natural wonders among the sky, the earth and the ocean, the poet used a lot of novel metaphors and vivid images to ask students to pick out relevant paragraphs and analyze the magnificence of the poet's imagination.
4. The sentence patterns and words used in this poem are very distinctive, with overlapping sentence patterns, powerful verbs and impassioned words, which embodies the power of the west wind in the rhythm of language. We should focus on analyzing the characteristics of these sentences and words.
As for this poem, the general explanation is that it expresses a kind of praise for revolutionary forces, but in addition, it also explains the poet's view of nature to students. In the cycle of decline and prosperity, the infinite power of nature can be displayed.
Third, expansion and comparison.
1. ode to the west wind is a masterpiece of romanticism. While expressing strong feelings, it also contains rich imagination and has a broad realm. Organize students to discuss: What's the difference between it and lyric poetry that we are generally familiar with?
2. While praising the west wind, this poem also depicts many natural phenomena, including many scientific factors, so that students can find out the relevant paragraphs and think about how scientific knowledge has become "poetic" through the poet's imagination.
reference data
Reading Shelley's ode to the west wind (Yuan Kejia)
1819 65438+1On the afternoon of October 20th, Shelley walked in the Cassin jungle in the suburb of Florence, Italy. He walked along the Arno River, and the sight of the autumn wind sweeping the leaves excited him. He thought of the suffering motherland, and he also thought of his personal experience of being forced to leave the motherland a year and a half ago. The slanderous attacks on him in some British newspapers still ring in my ears. The poet can't help but sigh that the motherland and himself are deeply mired in the suffering created by the reactionary government; He was filled with indignation, and he urgently needed to borrow a powerful artistic image to express the anger of a revolutionary. The west wind came at the right moment: isn't this the artistic image he pursues?
Use the power of the west wind to sweep the leaves as a metaphor for the revolutionary forces to clear the reactionary regime; Blowing seeds with the west wind symbolizes the spread of revolutionary ideas and entrusts the poet with hope for the future-these are two aspects of ode to the west wind's eulogy of the west wind as the theme of "destroyer and protector". After several days of brewing, Shelley further compared himself with the West Wind, compared all revolutionary poets and poems with the West Wind, and vigorously expounded the dual functions of poets and poems: breaking the old and creating the new, further enriching the progressive content of this famous lyric poem. Of course, due to the limitations of the times and world outlook, Shelley's revolutionary thought basically belongs to the category of utopian socialism, with abstract and illusory nature.
In this way, in order to grasp the theme of ode to the west wind and understand the situation in England at that time and Shelley's life and thoughts, it is not unnecessary. Here, concise historical background knowledge can obviously help us appreciate the concrete.
Oh, the wild west wind, the breath of autumn life!
You are invisible, but the dead leaves are swept away by you.
It's like a ghost meets a wizard and has to escape:
The opening of "ode to the west wind" appropriately expresses the poet's anger at the ugly reality and his determination to clean up the old forces with the help of the autumn wind. Shelley was a revolutionary optimist. He not only saw the destructive power of the west wind sweeping leaves, but also saw its construction function of blowing seeds. This contradictory and unified theme runs through the whole poem of ode to the west wind. The first sentence comes straight to the point, which provides a central clue for the development of the following poems. At the end of the poem, it is a famous sentence: "If winter has come, how can spring be far away?" Put down the pen and make the prophecy come true.
The powerful image of the west wind runs through the whole poem and plays a decisive role. But each section has auxiliary images associated with the west wind to expand the artistic effect. Echoing the two aspects of the theme of the whole poem, the first section not only writes about the west wind breath in autumn, but also writes about the "blue sky sister" in spring (that is, the spring breeze); There are not only ghostly fallen leaves, but also spring buds that "feed in the air like sheep"; The poet not only cursed the dying autumn leaves with words such as "plague reappears", but also looked forward to "filling the plains with color and fragrance" in spring. The whipping of reality and the fantasy of the future-that is, the praise of the dual role of the west wind in breaking the old and creating the new-are constantly developing in the intersection through parallel and comparative descriptions.
The second paragraph of "ode to the west wind" not only continues to describe it as a "dying year", but also eulogizes the strength of the west wind of Corona, and also connects it with the clouds in the sky from the image of dead leaves in the last paragraph. The wind sweeping clouds is similar to sweeping leaves, and the connection here is close and natural. With this connection, the artistic conception of poetry expands: our eyes move from the ground to the air. What attracts our attention here is still the overwhelming momentum of the west wind, as well as lightning, storms and revolutionary storms brought by floating clouds:
That's your breath. It will come out of it.
Black rain, hail and fire: Oh, listen:
The first three paragraphs of ode to the west wind all end with "Oh, listen", but the wording of the first paragraph is slightly different. Of course, Shelley wants us to hear not only the rushing wind, but also the revolutionary horn from the poet's heart. As we all know, Shelley's vacillation in using violence in the revolution has always been an important shortcoming in his life thought. It was not until 18 19 that the British workers' movement rose that he clearly pointed out the necessity of violence. Although some western bourgeois critics still hold different opinions (such as Shelley's Author at Work published in 1956), ode to the west wind's praise of violence is affirmative. Shelley said clearly, "Oh, I hope you will give me a spirit of violence!"! Be brave, let us be one! " (5) It is precisely this point that makes ode to the west wind obviously surpass the ideological height of most of Shelley's lyric poems.
In the first two sections, readers follow the poet's brush strokes into the earth, and in the third section, the poet leads us into the ocean. The stormy waves in the Mediterranean have become prominent auxiliary images, just as dead leaves and floating clouds are auxiliary images in the first and second sections respectively. Shelley focuses on the blue Mediterranean awakened by the autumn wind. The power of the west wind is further rendered: the Atlantic Ocean makes way for the west wind and "splits to both sides"; The vegetation deeply planted at the bottom of the abyss is "scared blue" by the west wind and "shrinks automatically while trembling".
So far, Shelley has described three natural phenomena: the west wind sweeps away leaves, sweeps away flowing clouds and sets off waves. The reader certainly feels that the poet's own thoughts and feelings are pinned on the image of the west wind, but clearly points out that the relationship between the west wind and himself is still in the fourth and fifth quarters. The fourth section is the turning point of this poem's structure: it begins to develop in the poet's subjective direction. Alas, if I were a dead leaf floated by you,/if I were a cloud that could fly with you,/if I were a wave, I would breathe with your strength. It is worth noting that Shelley still reused the auxiliary images in the first three verses when guiding "I" into poetry. This ingenious repetition sums up the above and leads to the following, which makes the structure of the whole poem close at once and makes the transformation of the description object-from the west wind to the poet appropriate and natural. Of course, what Shelley means here is not to belittle himself as the object swept by the west wind, but to gain the same strength and play the same role as the west wind. He said, "This life, which is overwhelmed by the heavy shackles of years, is the same as yours: proud, swift and unruly".
In the last section of ode to the west wind, after expressing his hope for a "wild spirit", Shelley profoundly and concisely pointed out the social mission of poets and poems. Poetry should, like the west wind, promote the birth of a new world and spread "Mars" to the world, like the horn of prophecy-echoing the first horn of spring-"awakening the sleeping earth". This is exactly what Shelley has always emphasized as a revolutionary romantic poet. In his unfinished long thesis "On Poetry", he pointed out that a poet should first be a soldier, a legislator of society and a mentor of life.
After the above development, the theme of ode to the west wind ended with Shelley's prediction of revolutionary optimism: "If winter has come, west wind, how can spring be far away?" Many readers can recite this famous saying; It is deeply rooted in people's hearts, not only because it has great ideological significance, but also because it appears at the end of the whole poem, which sums up the tortuous thoughts and emotions very appropriately and powerfully. If it appears at the beginning, the effect will be greatly weakened. From this ingenious arrangement, we can also appreciate Shelley's excellent poetic art.
There are two kinds of Shelley's lyric poems: one is characterized by distinctive political views and concise and powerful poems, such as A Song for the British People. The other kind wins with brilliant imagination and beautiful feelings, such as larks. They are full of imaginative charm and strange colors. Ode to the west wind has both advantages. The poet's imagination enters the sea, but it is not exaggerated; The images used are concrete and coherent, not as colorful as those in the cloud. Although the poet's imagination gallops with Liu Yun and Bi Tao, his heel is firmly on the land of reality.
The tight structure of ode to the west wind is one of the important reasons for its success. In the process of analyzing the above themes, we have seen the cooperation and development of idea image and sub-image. The whole poem always focuses on expressing the power of the west wind, while constantly absorbing other images from the ground, sky and ocean to enrich the artistic appeal of the poem; The poem highlights the powerful force of the west wind and provides a colorful picture. It not only shows the effect of concentration and cohesion, but also is monotonous. Poets all over the world use their inner feelings to render the external scenery, and use the external scenery to reflect their inner feelings, thus truly achieving a moving situation of scene blending. We can't forget that Shelley once copied the words of a contemporary poet with praise: "Turn natural scenery into thoughts and thoughts into natural scenery-this is the secret of artistic genius."
In terms of format, ode to the west wind is also unique. The whole poem consists of five sonnets. Ordinary sonnets are suitable for expressing a complete and simple thought or emotion, so they often exist alone or form a group of poems, but each part still has quite distinct independence. It is rare that five sonnets are closely combined into a lyric poem like ode to the west wind, and the parts are closely interdependent and inseparable. According to the study of several notebooks used by Shelley at that time, at first he used blank poems, and after several revisions, it became the present form. I think this may be because blank poems are suitable for expressing profound feelings, but they are generally loose and do not meet the requirements of compact structure, while sonnets are famous for their compact and complete structure. But the capacity of a sonnet is too small to fully express Shelley's grandeur and affection, so it is necessary to combine several sonnets. Here we can see the close relationship between content and form.
(Selected from Footprints of Half a Century, People's Literature Publishing House 1994 Edition)