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by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)

The West Wind
 (Sung text for setting by D. Holman)
 See original
Language: English 
                      I
O wild West Wind,  thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

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

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

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

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

 ... 

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

                      V

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

 ... 

Composition:

    Set to music by Derek Holman (b. 1931), "The West Wind", 2009, first performed 2009, stanzas 1-5,21-25 [ voice and piano ], from The Four Seasons, no. 8

Text Authorship:

  • by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Ode to the West Wind"

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Árpád Tóth) , "Óda a nyugati Szélhez"


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 75
Word count: 556

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