Ode to the West Wind

This is another poem that we read last year in Brit Lit, which has helped me sucessfully write my AP paper this year. Although I hate saying this, Percy's wife is much more well known then Percy. But, he does have some very well known poems that are frequently talked about. Ode to the West Wind being one of them. Each of the seven parts contains five stanzas, which are all metered in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme in each part follows a pattern known as terza rima.In the three-line terza rima stanza, the first and third lines rhyme, and the middle line does not; then the end sound of that middle line is employed as the rhyme for the first and third lines in the next stanza. The final couplet rhymes with the middle line of the last three-line stanza. Thus each of the seven parts of “Ode to the West Wind” follows this scheme: ABA BCB CDC DED EE. Something else that I noticed about this poem in particular is that, Shelley uses the West Wind to symbolize the power of nature and of the imagination inspired by nature. Unlike pieces he wrote however, the West Wind is active and dynamic in poems, such as “Ode to the West Wind.” While some others are immobile, the West Wind is an agent for change. Even as it destroys, the wind encourages new life on earth and social progress among humanity. Another awesome thing I discovered about this poem, was an actual note from Shelley himself.  Shelley appended a note to the "Ode to the West Wind" when it appeared in a Promethus Volume in 1820. "This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions." This note from Shelley, bascailly backs up my hypothesis of him using specific experiences within his life to write his poetry.

Getting to know Percy Bysshe Shelley

In my first blog of the quarter, I mentioned a little bit of information about my poet, Percy Shelley. But I thought it would be better for me to do some more research on him for two purposes. One being that I hardly knew anything about him and two so that it would make my paper a bit easier to write. As I said before Shelley is known as one of the greatest epic poets of the 19th century and is very well known for his long-form poetry. While at school, Shelley was severely bullied; physically and mentally- by his classmates. After finding this out, I can now understand why he wrote some of the pieces he did. While in college, Shelley developed very strong anti-beliefs and published an article about it in school. He was then expelled and his parents immediately demanded that he take back everything he had published. Instead of doing what he had been asked, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook, who he had also been banned to see by his parents. Clearly, his parents had an issue with everything that he said and did. Shelley grew to hate his wife, and eventually abandoned her for the very well known, Mary Shelley (author of one of my favorite books, Frankenstein). And to make things even better for Shelley, Mary was the daughter of his hero, William Godwin. Surprisingly Godwin did not approve of the two of them being together and ended up not speaking to either of them for several years. Death was something that majorly affected Percy Bysshe Shelley. In the fall of 1816, the young couple came home from a trip to discover that Mary's half-sister had committed suicide. Shortly after, around December, within the same year Harriet had committed suicide as well. She was found drowned in a river in London. Finally after waiting several years, Mary and Percy married- only for everything to come to a very fast halt because the courts ruled not to give Shelley custody of his and Harriet's children; assuring everyone that they would be better off with foster parents. On July 8, 1822 just about to turn 30, Shelley drowned while sailing. Shockingly, his death has been ruled as an accident even though there was evidence that said otherwise. As you can see, Percy Bysshe Shelley's life was certainly uneasy and very stressful. I actually sort of feel bad for him, but at the same time I think because of his day to day life- it bettered his poetry. He was able to express what others would not allow him to verbally do and just put it on a page.

Beautiful Creatures

In the midst of all this poetry research we have been assigned to do in the past several weeks, I have been trying to keep up on the book I am currently reading. My sister ordered the book Beautiful Creatures from amazon and I snatched it up first because I knew I would finish much quicker then she would. As most people know, this book has recently been turned into a movie and I can totally see why; it's amazing!! This book is written by authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the book is also the first in the series called Caster Chronicles. I finished the book and went and saw the movie this past weekend, once again the book was so much better. Set in South Carolina, the novel is from the point of view of Ethan Wate who keeps having reoccurring dreams about this mystery girl. Later in the novel, he meets Lena Ravenwood who is commonly referred to as "Old Man Ravenwood's niece". Once the two of them meet, they form a friendship instantly and become much more than just friends. Something that I love about this book is that it mocks the phrase "I love you to death" because in reality love and death are the main purpose of this novel. Ever since I started middle school, I have always reached for books that are about fantasy, romantic stories. Maybe it’s because I have a lack of romance in my life or maybe it’s because I have always wished that magic and true power were more than what I read on the pages of countless books. Later within in the novel, Ethan finds out what Lena really is; a caster. So basically, she is a witch. And on her sixteenth birthday she will either be claimed for the light or the dark (creepy I know) but Lena is determined to keep herself good and go towards the light. And more importantly, she wants to stay as good as she can for Ethan. Another phrase that I have also associated with this novel is "love conquers all" which is determined by the ending. But obviously I'm not going to tell you the ending because I want everyone to read this book and enjoy it just as much as I did!

All poetry does not stink.

As much as I love English and reading, my downfall since I was ever introduced to it has been poetry. I'm more of a literal person, so when I read a poem the metaphysical imagery is not easy for me to pick up. My first reaction when the poetry unit was announced was "great, now I’m going to fail". But somehow my grade right now is exceptionally good for the quarter. For my third quarter paper, I decided to choose Percy Bysshe Shelley as my poet to learn more about. One of the reasons that I chose him was because he is one of the few poets that I actually enjoyed reading in Brit Lit and then again this year in AP. The research I have done has given me hope that maybe ALL poetry is not as horrible as I thought it was. Percy Shelley is noted for being one of the most major Romantic poets and lyric poets. This is an added bonus for me because I prefer the lyric poems to the more unstructured ones. One thing about Shelley that has really stood out to me is that he wrote what he felt; he did not conform to what others were thinking. In fact, most publishers and journals declined to publish his work for being arrested and charged of blasphemy. To me, that is just so cool. It makes me feel like his poetry really did have a message and even though people didn't agree with him it did not discourage him from continuing to write. Shelley has many well-known published works, including one of my favorites- Ozymandias. I chose this poem to use in my paper because I have read and analyzed this poem several times and my understanding of the sonnet is very clear. The central theme of this poem is about the decline of all leaders and the empires that they strive so hard to form, no matter how big and powerful they are. After doing some research, I found out that this poem represents a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses' throne name. Ozymandias is a fourteen line poem, metered in iambic pentameter. Something that I definitely think Shelley did on purpose was that he used an unusual rhyme scheme. This poem is Shelley's way of trying to get a message across, not just to sound good. I know I said above that I enjoy lyric poetry (and I do) but I enjoy this poem simply because it is different. And who doesn't like when things are different. This blog post is probably the most unorganized thing I have ever written but that is how Ozymandias is supposed to be looked at. And that's really all I have to say about that! So thanks Mrs. Healey for helping me see that all poetry does not stink.