"O, Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
While Shelley’s speaker wants his words to spur people to action, he also wants them to give people hope; a prophecy of a better future. In this instance, spring symbolizes that hope.
"Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Shelley’s speaker recognizes that his words are the primary way he can fight injustice, so he begs the West Wind to help spread his battle cry to others across the country and spur a revolution.
"As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
Shelley’s speaker laments how he no longer has the energy and vigor to be the revolutionary that he had been when he was younger. In Shelley’s personal life, he did live a life considered revolutionary or scandalous by many, such as praising atheism, taking many lovers, and leaving his wife for Mary Godwin, who became Mary Shelley, the famous author of Frankenstein. In his late 20s, however, when he composed this poem, life had hit him with a series of hardships: his first wife (with whom he had children) died by suicide in 1816, his infant daughter died in 1818, and his young son died in 1819. The world-weary tone employed in this part of the poem, then, may reflect the fact that in recent years Shelley had not been a stranger to tragedy.
"Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
This stanza and the rest of section III describe the West Wind waking up the calm ocean and turning it into a raging, fearsome sea. Wind currents can and do affect ocean currents and can get stronger during the winter months.
"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..."See in text(Ode to the West Wind)
This reference to seeds waiting for spring to awaken alludes to the idea of a rebellion lying in wait to rise up. The term “spring” has been used throughout history to refer to various uprisings and political movements, such as the Spring of Nations in Europe in 1848 or the Arab Spring in 2010.
