Percy Shelley wrote “Ode to the West Wind” in 1819 while he was staying in the outskirts of Florence, near the woods of the Parco delle Cascine. The Italian scene of writing no doubt inspired him to use terza rima, the interlocking rhyme scheme invented by the famous Florentine Dante Alighieri for his Divine Comedy. However, it’s less clear what prompted Shelley to write the poem in the first place. Some critics believe he wrote it in response to his son’s death, which occurred that same year. Other critics assert that the poem had its origins as a response to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, England. The event occurred when cavalry charged on a crowd of protesters demanding parliamentary reform, killing eighteen and injuring hundreds more. Regardless of the source, Shelley’s contribution to the lyric tradition of the ode is a work that centers thematically on the revolutionary possibility of renewal. In particular, the poem’s speaker, who identifies as a poet, asserts their belief in poetry’s transformative potential. It is this belief that leads them to make a lengthy address to the west wind, which they flatter in an attempt to enlist its help in spreading their prophetic message.

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