Comparison Between My Last Duchess And Ozymandias

Both ‘London’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ explore the ideas of power through social structures, hierarchy and synecdoche.

The life of a dominant king who got lost in the things of the world, resulted in him losing focus on his destiny through power and time. It is a battle between man and the natural world he faced. Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, demonstrates that no matter the position one holds, in time, power can be arrogant and ruling, but cannot ultimately last for an eternity.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote this poem "Ozymandias" to express to us that possessions do not mean immortality. He used very strong imagery and irony to get his point across throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and ironic pictures in our minds, Shelley was trying to explain that no one lives forever, and nor do their possessions. Shelley expresses this poem’s moral through a vivid and ironic picture. A shattered stone statue with only the legs and head remaining, standing in the desert, the face is proud and arrogant, "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read"(lines, 4-6).

his description of his duchess, proves his own need to be in control. He initially asks his

The passions for power and command are chiselled into a face, but line 8 describes things that are not seen in the eye of the beholder. Shelley describes the hand of Ozymandias, which mocked, and his heart, which fed. This one line sums up the metaphysical aspects of Ozymandias' character, both described and implied. Here Shelley is telling about the reality that one day the king must leave this world. "Mocked" is particularly well worth noting, since it is one of two words which directly relate how Ozymandias, treated his subjects. A king, high and mighty, transmuted into high and mighty stone, exuding airs

In Ozymandias, the narrator speaks of an “antique land” that he’s travelled to and comes across a statue which is the King Ozymandias (who is the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.) The structure of the poem is written in an petrarchan

The first overarching theme of all of these poems is that man-made things eventually die. In “Ozymandias”, the statue of Ramses II gradually decays until he is forgotten. The king being lost in memory is shown in the very beginning before the statue is even mentioned when a traveller tells the story of Ozymandias, which adds another level of obscurity to the statue: “I met a traveller from an antique land / Who said” (lines 1 - 2). In other words, rather than seeing the statue for oneself, one hears about it from someone who heard about it from someone who has seen it. This conveys the impermanence of the king’s power, a man-made concept, as time erodes at the statue until the king is no longer remembered. “Stand” (3) is an example of the personification of the statue. This gives it life, showing that man-made things start out alive but are always approaching death, as even the “trunkless legs” (2), diction that conveys the already dilapidated state of the statue,

Compare and contrast the attitudes and values of the two speakers of the poems and how the poets have used language to convey these between “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvel and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

The poems I have chosen are: My Last Duchess Ferrara by Robert Browning, Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning and La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats. I am going to be exploring the theme of power and control in each of the poems and how the poets show it.

In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.

A poem about a statue that has far outlived its boastful inscribers, albeit shattered in pieces. This discrepancy is seen between the lines 10-12, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!/ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay…” Clearly, these people thought they were mighty and great, but instead, they are gone and all that remains are the shattered statues. When we die, we cannot take anything with us. It doesn’t matter how rich and important someone is in life; They are nothing but a memory when they are

 The poem "Ozymandias" tells a story about a traveler, who reveals his or her story to the narrator of the poem. The author of the poem is Percy Bysshe Shelley. He keeps the interest of the poem by using constant sounds and images that are clear and concise, by supplying mystery with words that have more than one meaning, and by using a spectrum of words that capture the interpreters attention.

Shelley’s version of “Ozymandias” pays particular attention to the details of what remains of Ramses’s statue. Shelley conveys to the reader that no matter how powerful a ruler may be, their influence will fade with time. The description of what Babylon looks like when the poem was written gives the reader a clear

In the poem Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias” there are several different sound devices portrayed. The author demonstrates use of rhyme and meter. In the beginning of the poem the author used rhyming words to give a description of the mans journey through the dessert, and informing that he found a statue. It states, " Two vast and trunk less legs of stone stand in the dessert." Although, the statue is destroyed and seems to be smashed, considering the 2 legs. Towards the end of the poem the author demonstrates irony, when it says," a colossal wreck, boundless and bare." It was once said to be mighty and powerful, but reveals there is nothing but sand on the desert. "Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things" references that the

By calling himself “king of kings”, he alludes to God and believes he is greater than all other men. He ruled his kingdom solely on the fear of those beneath him. The intimidating language on the pedestal and the statue made for him display that Ozymandias possessed almighty power. To end the poem, Shelley writes, “Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The line and level sands stretch far away.” As time passed, the sand literally destroyed the symbol of what was once the greatest man alive.