French Revolution and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”: The Strong Voice of Revolutionary Spirit

The slogan of the French Revolution—the freedom of speech, the freedom of choice, and the freedom of movement—the liberty, that is sought throughout the world crossing the frontiers of France and the greater Europe, has become the spiritual strength of the Romantic poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Romanticism, that begins with the publication of Lyrical Balladsin 1798, just one year before the end of the French Revolution in 1799, continues to grow in reaction to the effects of the social transformation caused by the Revolution.In the opinion of Thomas Carlyle, “The French Revolution plays a strong and vital role that influencesthe Romantic writers. As the Revolution begins to play out the absolute monarchy, that had ruled France for centuries after centuries and collapsed in only three years, the spirit of it results in a complete transformation of society” (Carlyle, 1906). In the words of Albert Hancock, "The French Revolution came, bringing with it the promise of a brighter day, the promise of regenerated man and regenerated earth. It was hailed with joy and acclamation by the oppressed, by the ardent lovers of humanity, by the poets, whose task it is to voice the human spirit” (Hancock, 1899).Percy Bysshe Shelley is highly influenced by the Revolution that is reflected in his poems, particularly in “Ode to the West Wind” (1819),originally published in 1820 by Charles Ollier in London as part of the collection Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, with Other Poems, where the ‘Wind’ becomes the trope for spreading the word of change through the poetic speculations. The spirit of French Revolution is fully reflected in the poem where Shelley invites the young generation of his own time as well as the following generations to bring a rapid change in the society they live. This paper proposes to investigate how the Revolution influences Romantic poetry, particularly Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” to spread the message of the Revolutionthrough his poetic speculations in the young minds of his readers that fuels new thoughts and ideas into the future researchers.