Summary
The poem's final section opens with an impassioned plea to the wind: "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is." Essentially, the speaker is asking to be made into the wind's instrument, just like how the wind can be heard through the forest. It doesn't matter, the speaker says, if he is aging ("if my leaves are falling"); he will still be able to produce a powerful song, or a "deep, autumnal tone." This song will be beautiful, though it will be sad. The speaker then tells the wind that he wants it to become his own spirit. And he doesn't stop there, saying he wants the wind to simply become him completely—"Be thou me, impetuous one!"
In the latter half of the section, the speaker's appeal for revolution both personal and global is fully clarified. He calls on the wind to "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe"—spread his old thoughts throughout humanity—to spark a revolution, or a "new birth." The speaker is not referring to his words in general alone; he hopes this very poem can change the world. He states that "by the incantation of this verse," through the metaphorical magic contained within this poem, the wind should scatter his words like sparks throughout mankind. Finally, the speaker asks the wind to speak through him as a trumpet signaling that change is coming. He concludes the poem with a question: "O Wind, / If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" The meaning of this question is relatively clear: the speaker is saying that if winter is arriving soon, shouldn't spring follow?
Analysis
The perceptive reader might recognize a slight shift in tone here. While the speaker is still calling for revolution ("a new birth!"), he no longer casts himself as being completely helpless in the matter. Where in the previous section he was "chain'd and bow'd," here the speaker asks the wind to collaborate, not to act entirely on its own. He wants to take an active part in the coming revolution, serving as the "lyre" for the winds of change. And he is no longer so pessimistic about his age: "What if my leaves are falling like its own!" he cries. He seems to some degree to have freed himself from the "thorns of life."
This shift explains why the speaker calls on the wind to become him instead of the other way around, though it is easy to imagine an earlier version of the speaker wishing to dissolve entirely into the wind. But no—now, he wants the wind to "Be thou me." The speaker has gained confidence in his poetry's ability to effect change. This is evidenced by his telling the wind to spread his poetry—which is compared to "Ashes and sparks," showing the speaker's confidence in its revolutionary potential—throughout mankind. The revolution is also personal, as seen in the speaker telling the wind to use his dead thoughts to "quicken" the revolution.
In the final lines of the poem, the speaker tells the wind to announce the coming revolution through his lips. This is particularly significant because of its departure from the beginning of the section, where the speaker asks to be the wind's instrument. Now, the wind is the "trumpet of a prophecy!" We see the speaker's newfound confidence expressed in this major distinction. The tone of the poem's conclusion is therefore hopeful and triumphant, with the speaker even expressing his belief that good things ("Spring") will follow the metaphorical winter.
