"If Winter comes, can spring be far behind ?" Explain the line from Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind.

Shelley's rhetorical question at the end of this poem is significant and can be interpreted in two ways. One is that it is very positive, since Spring is a time of rebirth and regeneration which gives the poet hope that his poetic ability will again improve and increase. He has just before this, in the poem, berated himself for not having his words and his poetry reach far enough. He almost sounds earlier as if he is having his own personal "pity party" about the state of his writing. Some might look at this question however, as a sort of acceptance that life moves on and the seasons simply go as they do. This is probably not as popular and interpretation, but it does work.