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If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Ode to the West Wind', 1819

Literature

The story behind the card

The closing line of 'Ode to the West Wind', which Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in the autumn of 1819 in the Cascine woods near Florence. Across five parts the wind drives leaves, clouds and waves: a destroyer that also carries seeds to sleep through winter. At the end Shelley begs it to scatter his words among mankind like sparks from a fire. It was a hard year: his three-year-old son William had died in June, and in August cavalry had charged a peaceful crowd demanding reform at Peterloo in Manchester.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Batı Rüzgârına Övgü”, 1819

Bu, Percy Bysshe Shelley'nin 1819 sonbaharında Floransa yakınlarındaki Cascine ormanında yazdığı “Batı Rüzgârına Övgü”nün son dizesidir. Beş bölüm boyunca rüzgâr yaprakları, bulutları ve dalgaları önüne katar: Hem yıkar hem de kışı uykuda geçirecek tohumları taşır. Sonunda Shelley rüzgârdan, sözlerini bir ocaktan saçılan kıvılcımlar gibi insanlara yaymasını diler. Shelley için zor bir yıldı: Üç yaşındaki oğlu William haziranda ölmüş, ağustosta da Manchester'daki Peterloo Katliamı'nda süvariler, reform isteyen barışçı bir kalabalığın üzerine atlarını sürmüştü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Percy Bysshe Shelley
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