Zephyr: A Muse to Many

I mentioned previously that Matt often calls me his Zephyr, correct? The other day he asked me the name of the town where I was born (I was born in Florida but my family moved back to Missouri shortly thereafter). I told him Seminole, Florida. At that, he quickly commented, "Like, the song, Seminole Wind?" I assented. Then I realized what he was alluding to. "Can I call you my Seminole Wind sometimes?" he asked. I agreed, smiling. I think it made both of our days.

In case you didn't know, Zephyr (sometimes also Zephyrus, though that is the masculine version and would be weird for me to use as a nickname) is the Greek name for the West Wind. Zephyr is usually described as a gentle breeze, often associated with spring. When Matt mentioned that song, it made me think of other, more intentional uses of Zephyr in poetry and song. Here are a "few," in no particular order, some in which the West Wind features prominently, and others in which Zephyr is only briefly mentioned:

• Ode to the West Wind - Percy Shelley
• Epipsychidion - Percy Shelley
• The Solitary - Percy Shelley
• Zephyrus the Awakener - Percy Shelley (you'd think he owned the rights to it!)
• Essay on Criticism - Alexander Pope
• The Window, or the Song of the Wrens - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• The Zephyr Song - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Zephyr - Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Lines to a Beautiful Spring in a Village - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• The Character of Charles Brown - John Keats
• Ode to the Psyche - John Keats
• The Rose - John Keats
• Endymion - John Keats (I think he was just trying to outdo Shelley)
• Eleonora - Edgar Allan Poe
• Fields of Gold - Sting
• The Rose and the Zephyr - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• The Power of the Supreme Being - Robert Browning
• Nocturnal Reverie - Anne Finch

Well, as you can see, if you decide to allude to Zephyr in a musing of your own, poetic or otherwise, you are following a long-standing tradition. I like Matt's nickname for me all the more because of the vast allusion to works of literature that it brings with it. Feel free to post other references that I overlooked that you especially like or think are worthy of inclusion in a list that could practically start its own literary canon. The Zephyr Canon of Literature. I think I might write an anthology all based around the West Wind. Ha.

Happy Reading,

Elizabeth