984 silko, Leslie Marmon
lyric). The West Wind’s “Wild Spirit” (l. 13) embod-
ies the powerful dualities of nature, as it can be both
“Destroyer and Preserver” (l. 14). A seeming repre-
sentation of the Eastern belief in reincarnation and
the unending cycles of nature, the West Wind is
what makes the spring’s new life possible by driving
the fall’s seeds to their “wintry bed” (l. 6). Unlike the
annual rebirth offered to these seeds, Shelley is only
offered one pass through his own seasons, as is any
man. The West Wind’s “Dirge / Of the dying year”
(ll. 23–24), one that awakens the world from its
dreams of summer and casts nature into a state of
fear, thus becomes Shelley’s dirge for himself.
As “Ode to the West Wind” continues, Shelley
reflects on his childhood, when he was one with
this “uncontrollable” power (l. 47). Now the “heavy
weight” (l. 55) of time, experience, and mortality has
“chained and bowed” (l. 55) his adult character from
the “tameless, and swift, and proud” boy he once was
(l. 56). The final sonnet in this five-sonnet sequence
calls on the West Wind to lend Shelley a small por-
tion of the immortality it gives to nature. The poet
expresses his fear that his own death may be arriving
sooner rather than later (a seemingly prescient paral-
lel drawn between himself and the dying season of
autumn—Shelley himself will be dead within two
years of writing this poem). With his bodily death
will come the death of all the poetic ideals he has
yet to commit to paper, along with, perhaps, the
death of his hopes for generating change in society
and culture. He beseeches the wind, “Drive my dead
thoughts over the universe / Like withered leaves to
quicken a new birth!” (ll. 63–64). From the “Ashes
and sparks” (l. 67) of his words Shelley hopes to light
a fire, albeit a fire he will never live to see, and that his
verse will be, with the Wind’s help, “The trumpet of a
prophecy!” (l. 69). Thus, while man himself is mortal,
the influence of his ideas can conquer the stages of
life, completing the cycle from winter to spring and
allowing him to triumph over his natural mortality.
Caroline E. Kimberly
SiLko, LESLiE marmoN Almanac
of the Dead (1991)
Leslie Marmon Silko’s second novel, Almanac of the
Dead (1991), is a cautionary tale intended to shock
readers into an awareness of indigenous history and
pressing sociopolitical issues. The apocalyptic 763-
page novel is set in the southwest United States
and Central America in the near future, with some
episodes occurring as far back as the era of Euro-
pean invasion of the Americas. Centered in Tucson,
Arizona, and told from the points of view of at least
33 characters, the novel interweaves tales of social
and personal corruption, environmental degrada-
tion, and indigenous activism. Led by revolutionar-
ies and visionaries, the indigenous population rises
up against the oppressive European and mestizo
(mixed-blood) ruling class. By the end of the novel,
a native new world order is emerging.
Developing her novel, Silko (b. 1948) was influ-
enced by Mayan beliefs about time and the Mayas’
record keeping of the days (including prognostica-
tions of future events) in extensive almanacs, nearly
all of which were destroyed by Spanish colonizers.
For Mayan people, time was alive and would return.
Likewise, in Silko’s novel, the story fragments that
make up the sacred notebooks (the almanac) are
the source of the people’s existence and have been
passed down as such through the generations.
In Almanac of the Dead, Silko constructs a
kaleidoscopic moral history of the Americas. As
communal almanac maker (prognostiquer, or fore-
teller of events), she critiques colonialism while
also prophesying a degenerating yet transformative
future that is more equitable and environmentally
sustainable for all who choose to abide by the new
social order.
Elizabeth McNeilcommunIty in Almanac of the Dead
Through the cautionary tales of sexual and political
perversity that make up her futuristic Almanac of
the Dead, Leslie Marmon Silko prophesies a future
that will denigrate, yet transform our shared human
community. Silko sees perversion in every aspect of
life in the Americas, public and personal. To vividly
show our escalating social problems, she uses narra-
tive strategies from cautionary tribal trickster tales
in oral storytelling traditions, namely humor and the
depiction of socially threatening behavior, including
aberrant sexuality. Like Silko’s contemporary novel,
tribal trickster tales of immoral behavior caution lis-