"suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear!..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
By attributing a human emotion (fear) to plants, which aren’t sentient, Shelley employs a technique called anthropomorphism. This involves imbuing objects, plants, or even animals with human emotions, desires, and motivations.
"Pestilence-stricken multitudes..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Though describing leaves, this line contains a poetic device called a metaphor to compare dying autumn leaves with people stricken by pestilence. When Shelley penned “Ode to the West Wind” in 1819, many people in England were actually starving and sickening. England was in the middle of a political upheaval as the aging King George III lost favor and the people demanded parliamentary reform. The country faced unemployment and famine after the Napoleonic Wars of years prior. In August 1819 in Manchester, the Peterloo Massacre took place, where soldiers attacked citizens who were demonstrating. Shelley was forthright in his liberal political beliefs, which are detailed in another poem he wrote during this time period called England in 1819.
"like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Shelley likens dead leaves to ghosts by using a simile, a phrase that uses the words “like” or “as” to show comparison between two seemingly different things. The simile works on two levels: Visually, the dying, fading leaves bring to mind the gossamer, colorless form of ghosts; and symbolically, the dead leaves represent the past, the end of a season. By comparing the wind to an enchanter, Shelley imbues the wind with magical powers, suggesting it is grander and more significant than just ordinary wind.
"O wild West Wind..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Shelley begins the poem with an apostrophe, or a direct address to a figure who cannot or does not respond—in this case, the West Wind. Note too how Shelley crafts the rhyme scheme in the poem: the middle of each stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the next stanza: ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, EE, EFE, etc.
"A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Note the alliteration and consonance of p sounds in "pant," "power," and "impulse," evoking the power of the west wind as well as the pounding power of the wave it generates.
"Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
The last two words in each of these two lines are reversed. The normal syntax would be: "the dead leaves are driven like ghosts fleeing from an enchanter." By reversing the normal order, Shelley imitates the pell-mell, helter-skelter flight of the stricken leaves. Those in back are tumbled into the front by the wild wind, and other leaves behind in the rout will be blown in front of them.
