The Conproach To Nature In John Shelley's Myth Of Metaphor

First of all, the image of the wind is a metaphor applied to depict the process of imagination. According to John Wright, in Shelley’s Myth of Metaphor, Shelley perceives the metaphor as “a mode of apprehension and expression by which imagination creates experience” (11-2). The poet mirrors and expresses reality in his poetry through the language he utilizes to convey his impressions. Shelley actively approaches nature by making use of his five senses to explore; to feel and to try to become one with nature (as we will discover later in the final stanza of the poem). Shelley’s approach to nature is opposed to William Wordsworth because the latter conceives nature as a source of inspiration, whereas for Shelley nature is the aesthetic beauty …show more content…
In Ode to the West Wind, we, the readers, can sense this proximity because from the very opening line of the poem we are already situated in media res; we sense already immersed in the middle of an important event that is taking place between the speaker of the poem and the wind. We can sense that the speaker of the Ode has an unusual fixation on the wind, and we are intrigued to discover the reasons why this fixation for the wind is so meaningful for the speaker. Without realizing it, we have become part of this experience because we are actively processing in our minds, by imagining, what is happening and what will be the end of this addressing as the poem unfolds until the last stanza. We can say then that Ode to The West Wind is a poem on a theme of acknowledged importance; it is an ode of address since the speaker opens the first line with the interjection “O”, to establish emphasis as well as an atmosphere of attention. The first half of the line reads: “O wild West Wind” (1). By addressing the wind straightforwardly, the speaker is animating and personifying the wind just as if the wind were an actual person, a living …show more content…
Therefore, after finishing reading the first line we, readers, are already envisioning through our inner mind the speaker standing in front of the tempestuous and strong wind. Imagination, according to Shelley, operates upon thoughts, and it is creativity that embellishes them through the use of words. These words become language, and language is the representation of actions and passions (761). Imagination allows us to create new concepts and new ways of expression. For instance, we imagine this narrator observing attentively the way in which the wind presents itself. Since the speaker is qualifying the wind as being “wild”, we are led to imagine that the wind possesses a destructive force on its own. In the second line, we learn that the wind possesses another quality: it is an “unseen presence” (2). It is invisible and undetectable before our eyes. By the time we reach the third line, the speaker uses the image of an “enchanter” to describe the