Ode to the West Wind
I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! Oh Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
寫作背景
西風頌(5張)
《西風頌》雪萊“三大頌”詩歌中的壹首，寫於1819年。[1]當時，歐洲各國的工人運動和革命運動風起雲湧。英國工人階級為了爭取自身的生存權利，正同資產階級展開英勇的鬥爭，搗毀機器和罷工事件接連不斷。1819年8月，曼徹斯特八萬工人舉行了聲勢浩大的遊行示威，反動當局竟出動軍隊野蠻鎮壓，制造了歷史上著名的彼得盧大屠殺事件。雪萊滿懷悲憤，寫下了長詩《暴政的假面遊行》，對資產階級政府的血腥暴行提出嚴正抗議。法國自拿破侖帝制崩潰、波旁王朝復辟以後，階級矛盾異常尖銳，廣大人民正醞釀著反對封建復辟勢力的革命鬥爭。拿破侖帝國的解體也大大促進
雪萊手稿
了西班牙人民反對異族壓迫和封建專制的革命運動，1819年1月，終於響起了武裝起義的槍聲。就在武裝起義的前夕，海涅給西班牙人民獻上了《頌歌》壹首，為西班牙革命吹響了進軍的號角。在意大利和希臘，民族解放運動方興未艾，雪萊的《西風頌》發表不久，這兩個國家也先後爆發了轟轟烈烈的武裝起義。面對著歐洲山雨欲來風滿樓的革命形勢，雪萊為之鼓舞，為之振奮，詩人胸中沸騰著熾熱的革命激情。這時，在壹場暴風驟雨的自然景象的觸發下，這種難以抑制的革命激情立刻沖出胸膛，壹瀉千裏，化作激昂慷慨的歌唱。這時詩人正旅居意大利，處於創作的高峰期。這首詩可以說是詩人“驕傲、輕捷而不馴的靈魂”的自白，是時代精神的寫照。詩人憑借自己的詩才，借助自然的精靈讓自己的生命與鼓蕩的西風相呼相應，用氣勢恢宏的篇章唱出了生命的旋律和心靈的狂舞。