Gone with the (West) Wind: Shelley, Apostrophe, and Inept Interpellation

In this essay, I read Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' as dramatizing the paradox of the apostrophe as a poetic device. Shelley presents a case where the speaker fails to understand the limitations of apostrophes before eventually realizing the revolutionary possibilities the serious (and embarrassing) employment of this device opens up. I read the poem alongside Althusser's formulation of 'interpellation' and his 'theatre' of the encounter with the Police. Thus, reading Shelley's 'Oh hear!' in the poem, alongside Althusser's 'Hey, you there!', I argue, helps us better understand Shelley's dramatization of the failure of the speaker's attempts at interpellating the West Wind. This failure, however, quickly turns to admiration for the revolutionary non-subject that the Wind is in the poem. I show that Shelley's desire to be the West Wind is not because it functions as a revolutionary subject but in fact because it doesn't.

Automated summary

In this essay, the author discusses Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' in relation to the use of apostrophe as a poetic device. The essay explores how the speaker fails to understand the limitations of apostrophes at first but later recognizes the revolutionary possibilities they offer. By linking the poem with Althusser's concept of interpellation and his idea of the encounter with the Police as a theater, the author argues that understanding the failure of the speaker's attempts at interpellating the West Wind is facilitated by comparing Shelley's 'Oh hear!' with Althusser's 'Hey, you there!'. The essay concludes that Shelley desires to be the West Wind not because it represents a revolutionary subject, but because it does not.