Question

Critical analysis and comparison between Not Marble nor the gilded monument and Ozymandias

Answer 1

Both of these Sonnets have been written to show the effect that time has on everything in this world. Though each of these sonnets has been written about completely unrelated subjects, they still both portray the message that everything changes with 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 ageThe 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.