d sparks, my words among mankind!/ Be through my lips to unawakened Earth" (66-68). The words "unextinguished hearth" represent the poets undying passion. The "hearth" is also at the centre of the earth which helps make the connection between humanity and nature. Both are constantly trying to reinvent themselves. When one scatters "ashes" it's at one's death and that person becomes one with the earth. When one scatters "sparks" it is these sparks that create new fires of creation and destruction. These new "sparks" arise when the "dome" explodes and abandons old ways. Can one ever escape the roots of creation? Shelley has many Blakean overtones of creation and destruction in the final tercet of this poem. Shelley's says that his lips are the "trumpet of prophecy" (69). And many say that Wordsworth is egotistical? Again, he uses biblical sounding words to add drama and importance to his prophetic vision. And it definitely helps achieve Shelley's intended climax when he asks with hope: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (70).This sentence could be rewritten substituting the word death, for the word "Winter," and the word rebirth, could take the place of "spring." Shelley, like all of the Romantic poets, constantly tries to achieve a transcendence to sublime. In "Ode to the West Wind," Shelley uses the wind as a power of change that flow through history, civilization, religions and human life itself. Does the wind help Shelley achieve his transcendence? It seems it has in some sense, but Shelley never achieves his full sublime. In poems such as "Stanzas written in Dejection Near Naples" Shelley uses images of "lightning" (15) and "flashing" (16) which help demonstrate that he can only attain a partial sublime unlike a poet like William Wordsworth. Perhaps that's why he tries to give rebirth to his individual imagination. One can never restart totally new. Even the trees that will grow from "the winged seeds" a...
