O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
The poem begins with the poetic exclamation "O," which is often used to express an uncontrollable outburst of emotion. It establishes that the speaker has a profound attachment to the wind. We learn almost immediately that one of the reasons for this attachment is the wind's "wild" nature, which is an important theme for the rest of the poem. Later in the poem, the speaker admits that he wishes he could be as wild as the wind, but that he has become trapped by the "heavy weight of hours"—aging.
from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
The speaker emphasizes the destructive aspect of the west wind by imagining it bringing rain, fire, and hail down from the top of a tomb—the night sky—and onto the Earth. The scene approaches the Biblical, with the rain's black color making its association with death even clearer. As we have seen, death in this poem leads to rebirth, but that does not mean that the violence of death should be understated. Lines such as this one confront the reader with the fact that change is a painful and difficult process.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
Here, the speaker finally lets the reader understand why he is so fixated on the wind from a personal standpoint. We learn that the speaker feels trapped by the process of aging and the woes of his present life. He is afflicted by these "thorns of life," a metaphor that emphasizes how challenging life has become for the speaker. And, while he does not literally bleed, he feels hurt and lost as a result. The speaker views the "wild" wind as the antithesis to this plight. He wishes he could be as free as the wind and the natural world it influences.
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!"
The role of poetry itself in the speaker's appeal to the west wind is revealed. He uses this very poem as an "incantation," a spell, to spread his poetry throughout humanity. Just as the wind effects great change in nature, the speaker wants his words to have a similarly revolutionary effect. This is why he compares his words to "ashes and sparks," an echo of the "Black rain, and fire, and hail" that come from the sky in an earlier stanza. The speaker suggests that poetry can be destructive in the same way that the wind itself (as we have seen) can be destructive. Then, in both cases, death is followed by resurrection.
