Today is the bicentenary of Shelley’s death by drowning. By way of tribute here is a recording of what is almost certainly his greatest poem, “Ode to the West Wind”. I have known this poem by heart for decades now and yet every time I read it or teach it I find new wonders in it.

One of the most intriguing things about this poem is the contrast it makes to the other great ode written almost contemporaneously but in England, Keats’s “Ode to Autumn”. Shelley’s poem bursts with dynamic energy in its yearning for transformational change, while Keat’s ode, with its gorgeously sensuous imagery, expresses a deep desire to hold the moment, even while recognising that such desires are vain.