Shelley+and+the+Sonnet+Form

=Shelley and the Sonnet Form=

Ode to the West Wind is not a true sonnet, but it is composed of five sonnet-like sections composed of 14 lines each. Each individual section is written in iambic pentameter, separated into four triplets and a concluding couplet; not a true sonnet, but sonnet-like. Ozymandias, on the other hand, is a true sonnet that is a variation on the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet.



 I

 O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, A  Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead B  Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, A

 Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, B  Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O Thou, C  Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed B

 The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, C  Each like a corpse within its grave, until D  Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow C

 Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill D  (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) E  With living hues and odours plain and hill: D

 Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; E <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear! E

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> The form Shelley uses in these sections, terza rima, is a series of three-lined stanzas or tercets with a final couplet. The terza rima rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, ded) serves to link the stanzas and enhance the fluidity of the poem. This looping rhyme, in which the word from the second line of the previous stanza becomes the first and third rhyme of the next, reveals the intermingling Shelley speaks of in the poem, as he longs to be one with the wind. The blending of rhyme also represents the fluidity of the wind, which flows through all things. In this case, the wind "carries" the rhyme through the following stanzas, much like the "dead leaves" and "winged seeds" it carries about the air. Once again, Shelley's message becomes visual, as he longs to flow with the wind and experience its power, which becomes reflected in the poem's rhyme.

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