compare ozymandias and not marble nor the gilded monuments are on Time.Compare the two sonnets in terms of the way in which Time is treated by the poets. Write your answer in about 150 words
Answers
Both the sonnets describe time’s power and sway over all the entities of life. Time is the supreme and immortal king who dominates everything. In the sonnet 'Not Marble Nor the Gilded Monuments', Shakespeare glorifies poetry and art. According to him time and war can destroy everything, but not poetry and art. Many gory wars have been fought in the world since the beginning of civilization. Towns, cities, kingdoms, and countries were destroyed in those wars. But time could not destroy poetry and art; the most ancient poetry and art exist till present times. So, the poet decides to immortalizes his friend in the sonnet 'Not Marble Nor the Gilded Monuments' According to him death won't be able to have any control over his friend's destiny; nor shall any enemy be able to do him any harm. The praises of his noble deeds will be read and admired by the coming generations. The coming generations of mankind will remember the memory of his loving and kind deeds in their memories by reading the rhymes created by the poet. Thus the memory of his friend will remain alive for ever until the Judgement Day.
However, in the poem ‘Ozymandias’, P.B. Shelley only describes the omnipotence of time. It has the power to turn the mightiest of kings like Ozymandias and all their kingdoms into ruins and ashes. In this poem the poet does not talk about poetry or any other art’s superiority over time. In this poem time is all powerful. However, in Shakespeare’s poem poetry is more powerful than time.Shakespeare begins his sonnet by giving an obvious example of mutability, describing the daily process of when day turns into night, taking away the brightness and joyfulness of the day, and leaving the world in the brutal darkness of night: describes a young man or woman growing up, and how their black curls have turned silvery with age
The king believed that the statue would stand forever in his place when he died, looking over his kingdom forever. 'And on the pedestal of the statue, there are these words, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'" However, all that surrounds the broken statue is a desert. The sonnet is written to express to the reader that possessions don't mean immortality.
Shelley wrote Ozymandias, he wrote the first eight lines as a story and the last six lines as a moral to the story. He deliberately used many caesuras and end stopped lines to give the reader a clear image of the statue and the surroundings that the sonnet is based upon. The sonnet is written so that the reader can easily picture the image of the statue in the empty desert, and can see the irony of the inscription. Shelley uses this irony when he describes the destroyed remains of the statue as being "colossal".
Both of these sonnets are written about how everything changes with time, but have been written to give the reader two very different messages.
Shakespeare conveys the reader through his sonnet that the beauty we see around us will not last, and that as every second pasts beauty is being lost and eventually the beauty will be gone completely. Shelley tells the reader that it is not possible to try and defeat time, even with non-living possessions.