A Study Of Shelley’s Ode To The West Wind From The Theory Of Cognitive Poetics

Percy Bysshe Shelly, shinning like a star, is outstanding in English romantic lyrics ofthe19thcentury. He has created many poems, essays, novels and dramas during his shortlife, which have a great influence on the later generations. Because of Shelly’s excellentlanguage, fiery emotion, profound thoughts and sincere expression, most of his works arewell accepted. Ode to the West Wind is one of his popular poems, famous for the peculiarmetaphors，distinctive imagery and glamorous rhythms. The study on the beauty ofimagery and rhythms in the poem is a goal for a great number of poetic researchers.Scholars both at home and abroad try to explain Ode to the West Wind with kinds of critictheories. They have got a lot of achievements from the perceptions of stylistics, linguistics,aesthetics and translatology. It seems that there are few studies on this poem conductedfrom the perspective of cognitive poetics. So in the light of the cognitive poetics based onthe theory of cognitive linguistics, cognitive science and cognitive psychology, this paperattempts to analyze and study this poem on readers’ mental process when they are doingtheir reading. The aim is to interpret how the theme and artistic characteristics of the poemare represented and to excavate other connotations hidden in the poem. Cognitive poetics isa new-rising theory that applies the conceptions of cognitive linguistics and cognitivescience into the process of literature reading. It is thought that literature is a special waynot only to express human’s experience in daily life, but also embody human’s cognitionof the world. As a new method of literary criticism, it provides a new perspective forstudying this poem, thus broadening the scope of the study on Shelley’s poems. This thesisanalyses Ode to the West Wind from two perspectives: figure and ground and conceptualblending.Chapter one briefly introduces the origin and the development of cognitive poetics,and elaborates two key perspectives of the cognitive poetics respectively, namely, figureand ground and the conceptual blending. Then a literature review for the poem Ode to theWest Wind and a conclusion for the achievements both at home and abroad are briefly presented. Finally, the creative meaning on the study of this poem through the perspectiveof cognitive poetics is put forward.Chapter Two mainly explores how the power of the west wind can be made prominentunder the perspective of figure and ground so as to bring out the revolutionary theme ofthis poem. Combining with social background to explore how the poet expresses his innerfeelings at that time.Chapter Three analyzes the imagery of the poem based on the perspective ofconceptual blending, and then digs up the connotations hidden in the poem through thereconstructed meanings of the imagery. As everyone knows, Shelley was deeply affectedby the thoughts of the enlightenment in his age, so the ideas of fighting against thetradition and the criticism and irony to the society throughout his poems are wellrepresented. Because of this, Shelly’s philosophic idea on life is overlook. And as in thispoem, images are abundant and metaphors are peculiar, how their meanings can be wellcognized? The cognitive approach of conceptual blending offers a good way to explore.During the process of exploring, the poet’s life philosophical idea can be dug out.The last chapter is a conclusion. Cognitive poetics is a theory with specialexplanation for literature reading. This paper attempts to confirm the feasibility of thistheory which provides scientific and reliable cognitive motivations for readers when theyare analyzing a piece of literary work as well as digging out its connotations.