Friday, November 5, 2010

Enchanted atmospheres: a non-statistical approach to climate






























































"O Wind,
if winter comes, can spring be far behind?"

 From: "Ode to the West Wind" (P. B. Shelley)



Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury.  1875.
 
P. B. Shelley
 
CCLXXV. Ode to the West Wind
 
O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being— 
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead 
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, 
Pestilence-stricken multitudes!—O thou         5
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed 
The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low, 
Each like a corpse within its grave, until 
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow 
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill  10
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) 
With living hues and odours plain and hill— 
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere— 
Destroyer and Preserver—hear, O hear! 
  
  Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,  15
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, 
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, 
Angels of rain and lightning! they are spread 
On the blue surface of thine airy surge, 
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head  20
Of some fierce Mænad, ev'n from the dim verge 
Of the horizon to the zenith's height— 
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge 
Of the dying year, to which this closing night 
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,  25
Vaulted with all thy congregated might 
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere 
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst:—O hear! 
  
  Thou who didst waken from his summer-dreams 
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,  30
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams, 
Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay, 
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers 
Quivering within the wave's intenser day, 
All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers  35
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou 
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers 
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below 
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear 
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know  40
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear 
And tremble and despoil themselves:—O hear! 
  
  If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; 
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; 
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share  45
The impulse of thy strength, only less free 
Than thou, O uncontrollable!—if even 
I were as in my boyhood, and could be 
The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven, 
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed  50
Scarce seem'd a vision,—I would ne'er have striven 
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. 
O lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! 
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! 
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd  55
One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud. 
  
  Make me thy lyre, ev'n as the forest is: 
What if my leaves are falling like its own! 
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies 
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,  60
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, 
My spirit! be thou me, impetuous one! 
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, 
Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth; 
And, by the incantation of this verse,  65
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth 
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! 
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth 
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, 
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?  70
 

3 comments:

Hans von Storch said...

Werner. Werner! Now you have shown your real motives. Who has an ad on this web-page you point to? Die Betriebskrankenkasse Mobil Oil! Dr. Krauss is spreading the word for Big Oil! (Ok, for a company providing medical insurance for employees of this organization involved in destroying our world).
Good that you have taken down your mask as an intelectual, Werner Krauss.

Werner Krauss said...

Hans, relax. I am sorry that this ad distracted your mind. I deleted the link and posted the text pure and naked.
Just read it aloud to join your speech-energy with those of the airy elements. It takes some practice, especially for us non-native speakers. But you will be rewarded highly, and the west wind will blow your busy mind! It will remind you that you are one with the atmosphere and, yes, the climate. What a lesson to learn for climate scientists!

Werner Krauss said...

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning!