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  • Essay / Discussion of the limited nature of life in Ozymandias and London

    In “Ozymandias” and “London,” both poets highlight the theme of mortality as a means of conveying the key message of human power. This is conveyed in "London" where Blake speaks of the death and suffering of people through a regular rhyme system which could reflect the regularity of oppression from my powerful beings "behind the palace walls". Similarly, in “Ozymandias,” Shelley speaks of the death of a civilization by overthrowing Ramesses; As “a broken face” suggests. However, despite this, due to the semantic fields displayed by the poet, human power is implied to erode to the point of becoming worthless (like the existing statue of the king/pharaoh) and human power is not to the height of the power of the elements. no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In addition to this, both poets convey the feeling of someone being dominant; thus emphasizing the magnitude of human power and, therefore, someone with greater power appears in both poems. In "London", the rich have this advantage over the poor, which shows how much the rich control the poor. This is what “How Chimney Sweeps Cry” suggests (which is almost a mocking tone). The purpose of this pathos created by the poet in relation to Ozymandias is to show how in one case human power can end the reigns of dictators, but on the other hand human power can harm society and create barriers between classes, as reflected in the context. of the French Revolution. Furthermore, in "Ozymandias", the great leader (Ramès) is supposed to have this force over his enemies and over his own people, but the fact that the poem is written as an indirect first person narrative, i.e. -saying "I met a traveler", creates the impression that humans as a whole have so much power, that they have made the reign of Ramses a very distant memory in "the ancient country" (the desert ). In my opinion, both poets highlight the power of humans as a way of expressing the anguish at how much this power has been abused to create fascist societies. In “Ozymandias,” Shelley speaks of a fallen empire, of a civilization that must have collapsed because there is no longer any sign of it, as the alliterative language of “limitless and bare” suggests. In "London", Blake tells us that the poorest residents of this city are having a hard time and that their empire has collapsed like Ozymandias', but in this case London has not collapsed. Blake suggests that while the rich hide "behind the palace walls", there is a colossal moral decline with the "prostitutes" and a melancholic, gothic tone, i.e. the "hearse". Furthermore, Blake writes that London has drifted into an age of poverty and disease due to the human power of dictators who are too cowardly to see what their city has become, i.e. "marks of weakness, marks of misfortune.” Related to this quote, human power is also presented here as evil by the poet as it is an example of degradation and the oxymoron of “wedding hearse”. While the powerful are happy, as "marriage" suggests, the oppressed are sad, as "hearse" suggests, and this is a recurring motif that suggests that the poor deserve to be and always will be looked down upon. two poems, both give the reader a feeling of depression and melancholy, suggesting that excessive human power results in a complete scarring of a setting. Shelley emphasizes different types of imagery to create this effect, such as: "The hand that mocked them and the.