Ode to the West Wind Man and the Natural World Quotes Page 2

The speaker describes himself as "too like" the West Wind – that is, he’s too much like a wild natural power, instead of an adaptable human being. Notice that this is basically bragging: he’s saying "I’m so quick and proud and larger-than-life, I’m not like a person at all, more a force of Nature!" He’s glad to be somewhat inhuman.

The speaker positions himself between two comparisons to the natural world here. First, he suggests that he – or at least his mind – is like an autumn forest, where the leaves are falling and everything is decaying. But then he suggests that another force of nature, the West Wind, could turn him into its instrument and use him to create beautiful art.

Here the speaker demands complete unity between himself and the West Wind, between man and the natural world; but the difference between a human "spirit" and Nature’s "Spirit" is more than just a matter of one capital letter.