For many readers and critics, it has seemed natural to associate the speaker of “Ode to the West Wind” with Shelley himself. This link makes sense for two reasons internal to the poem. First, the speaker obliquely identifies themself as a poet near the end of the poem. Second, the reference to the forest in canto 5 reflects the fact that Shelley wrote the poem while in a forest on the outskirts of Florence. These pieces of evidence notwithstanding, it isn’t strictly necessary to conflate the poem’s speaker with Shelley. In fact, in this case it can be helpful to insist on the difference between them. If we assume the speaker is Shelley, then the poem becomes little more than a mouthpiece for this one particular poet. However, if we take the speaker as an anonymous poet, then the poem becomes a broader meditation on the revolutionary potential of all poetry.

Regardless of how readers think about speaker’s identity, what’s most important about this figure is their commitment to an idea of poetry as a visionary force that can change the world. So committed are they to this idea that the speaker crafts a lengthy and meticulously structured invocation that spans three entire cantos. This invocation aims to flatter the west wind by emphasizing its immense power over earth, sky, and sea. Like a god, it is both “destroyer and preserver” (line 14). After flattering the wind in this way, the speaker reflects on their own limitations as a human. But though they affect humility in this way, the speaker seems to be emphasizing their limited power as part of a scheme to persuade the wind to help disseminate their revolutionary message. The rhetorical effectiveness of their prolonged address to the west wind clearly shows that the speaker is a gifted poet. Yet their ambitious appeal to such a powerful force also indicates the speaker’s tendency toward self-aggrandizement. Without a clearer sense of what the speaker’s revolutionary message actually contains, it’s difficult to determine whether it could be liberatory or dangerous. As such, it’s also difficult to judge whether the speaker’s evident self-importance is justified.

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