Ozymandias Figurative Language Essay

Myth about Prometheus has been an endless source of inspiration for many writers and poets throughout the centuries. Because of the universal message that is conveyed by the story the character of Prometheus became a fitting metaphor that suits different epochs and writers. The myth offers rich symbolism as well as an interesting narrative for reinterpretation. Usually, authors use the figure of the titan, the liberator of the humanity, in the context of his heroism, defiance, rebellion, sacrifice for the common good and disagreement with the unfairness of the present reality. In my paper I will focus on poetry that drew inspiration from the promethean myth and try to describe how different poets interpret and reinterpret the story of the ancient titan. I decided to take into consideration poems: “Old Prometheus” written by Zbigniew Herbert, “Prometheus” by Lord Byron and a poem of the same title by Leopold Staff.

Picture this: you have been told by doctors that you have a few years left to live. You will live the rest of your life in increasing pain and difficulty, knowing your death may be right around the corner. This was the exact situation John Keats faced in 1819 at the age of twenty-four. Upon hearing his diagnosis of tuberculosis, which was considered a death sentence at the time, Keats decided to dedicate his life to writing poetry. His work is viewed with high esteem and he is considered one of the great Romantic poets. Two poems Keats wrote in the short time he had left on earth were “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” These poems both tell different stories unrelated to one another. Although their stories are unrelated, both “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” have unique tones, structures, and themes that should be examined and compared.

The idea of poetry is a long romanticized work of art, that’s been analyzed and exploited over the centuries. Since it was first discovered in 40,000 B.C. it’s revolutionized the style of writing. Poetry wrecked the border and rules of literature, that has taken millenias to be developed by several dynasties and empires. From the billions of poems that have been recorded, and the thousands of themes these authors write about, choosing merely two poems to be compared is almost a disgrace to the community. Disregarding this, two poems from Richard Berengarten and Edgar Allen Poe will be analyzed. Despite their related themes, the two poems narrowly match each other besides the theme of Dreams.

Not often are men portrayed as a victim within a love affair. William Yeats and John Keats both allow a special woman to consume their emotional state within a short period of time. Heartbreak and anguish are commonly accommodated with love, though William and Keats view upon their loss leads to insight on the nature of love. Both “The Song of Wandering Aengus” and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” describe a female figure which has made an impact on the main character, however the poems' use of refined euphemisms and symbolism, although both have similar love experience, they contrast sharply in the aftermath of their love experiences.

Where’s Gramdma?, the 2013 Hedwig Anuar Award winning children’s book, authored by Edmund Lin, a Singaporean who wrote this piece to engage readers in the journey of a boy’s travels, when Alzheimer’s disease affect his much loved Gramda. The book contains exquisite illustrations by Tan Zi Xi. The book successfully views and portrays the subject using well orchestrated elements of writing ( Tunnell, 2008). Lim has used precise language“ Innocent yet struck” (Lim, 2013, p.19) in a manner that reflects the emotional, personal nature of the story.

According to Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle (1995), In Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous sonnet ‘Ozymandias’ (1818), the poem tells us about readers and reading. The poem is related to the acts of reading. The sculptor reads the face of the king, the traveller reads the inscription the narrative ‘I’ listens to the tale, and we read the poem. The poem not only can be read, but also tells us an allegory. It brings up a crucial question of how we can know if our interpretation of reading a literary text is valid and engages with other questions such as who this traveller who reads the inscription is and who the ‘I’ who listens to is, etc. Such questions are examined by the writers to summarize the developments in literary criticism

Of all the themes in poetry, one that is most commonly used and stands out quite a lot is love. T. S Elliot once quoted “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion”. As such, it is no wonder that the themes of unrequited love and despair are very prominent in poem La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats. In this poem Keats clearly denotes his personal rebellion against the pains of love and revealed the sad reality that; in pleasure, there is pain. This paper will take a closer look at one of the most prominent themes in La Belle Dame sans Merci; Love and Despair.

Authors always creatively weave figurative language into their writing in order to make it stronger and more appealing. Figurative language also helps efficiently convey themes and moods to the reader. There are three specific literary works that use this type of language exceptionally well. These works are the following: 1984 by George Orwell, “Imagine the Angels of Bread” by Martin Espada, and“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift . All of these literary pieces work to convey their theme and make the reader feel something and with the use of figurative language all of the works are able to do this easily.

Worthwhile poetry does make the audience think, it impacts the ways we think and how we interpret the hidden messages and morals taught throughout them. This essay aims to explore and discuss two of the following poems that make the audience think about poetry. The essays will also compare and contrast the subject matter, themes, rhyme, forms and the poetic devices and features. These poems to be analysed are On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer (‘Chapman’s Homer’) and La Belle Dame Sans Merci (‘La Belle’) both written by John Keats.

Ozymandias is a poem about a traveler, who is from a distant land, which traveled to a desart. The traveler wandered across a statue in the middle of the desart. The statue was enormous, but it was shattered into pieces. The one specific piece that caught his eye was

Poets used nature as a colour palette to paint a theme in their works. Mortality’s two faces of living and dying were exhibited through metaphors and imageries. In “When I have fears that I may cease to be,” the first quatrain (Keats 2-4) produced images of agriculture. His thoughts were compared to crops, thus, the author himself was a farm. A farm was full of life, containing lush greenery and a wildlife that roamed around. It is a breathing living thing. The phrase “.. on the shore” (Keats 12) was an interesting word choice given for a person on the brink of death. It gave the image that life was a state between nature elements of land and water. The last words “ .. to nothingness do sink” (Keats 14) compared dying to diving into an ocean of oblivion. It gave the reader an image of afterlife as a vast unknown. These word choices picked from nature made the reader feel emotions of fear and mystery which were closely associated with

Call to mind any of the great and famous poets of history and names like Shakespeare, Poe, and Homer might be some of the first to flood our memory. Call to remembrance any of the great and famous poems known to man and titles such as The Iliad, “The Raven”, and “Carpe Diem” might be recalled and admired. Very seldom in our personal lists of famed or admired poets does the name William Cullen Bryant make an appearance, and works of his such as “Thanatopsis” are all but familiar to the average American citizen. Despite this rather unfortunate modern reality, a very longstanding truth remains firm about the late William Cullen Bryant; He was at some point in his time one of the most, if not the most, famous and renowned poets in all of

A poem by William Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”, pushes forth to a concept of an expressivist view or idea that embodies the new movement of Romantics. John Keats, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale” also contains the original thought of the universe and gives a certain truth that serves as an insight into the mind of those who wrote during this time period.

Throughout history, there have numerous poets who have had grand influences on the future of literature. Many poets have different writing styles and themes, but nevertheless, they often share various similarities within their work. Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Keats can be seen as some of the most comparable people in both their personal lives and literary works. There are three specific poems, one from each poet that can be related to one another. There is: Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Tennyson’s “In Memoriam, A.H.H.” Wordsworth, Keats, and Tennyson never rationalize, argue, or preach; they carefully craft every word to maximize a reader’s understanding of the experience by absorbing the reader into the poem itself. Each poem has various philosophical truths that the reader has to ultimately discover on his or her own and learn about immortality and the effects of it upon human perception. Even though these poets differ in their messages, their styles and themes of writings can be linked together.

In the most cases, the readers are required to have knowledge of author’s context to understand in depth of author’s meaning and extract the useful information from the literacy works. However, everyone has their own interpretation to the same literacy work, and it is not caused by those knowledge. In the poem, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”, William Wordsworth discusses the ever-changing relationship between the human being and the God. He carefully chooses the words that clearly relate to his religious belief, which leads readers are able to avoid the effect from the biblical allusion and the symbolism while they are reading. The knowledge of context is unnecessary to understand the Wordsworth’s poem; moreover, the word choice is helpful for reader to understand the poem.