Compare Shelley's Ozymandias (1818) and Shakespeare's Sonnet 55 (1609)

Shelley's Ozymandias

Shakespeare's Sonnet 55

Shelley

A fair copy draft (c. 1817) of Shelley's "Ozymandias" in the collection of Oxford's Bodleian Library

The Younger Memnon statue of Ramesses II in the British Museum. Its imminent arrival in London may have inspired the poem

The Younger Memnon being hauled from Thebes

Shakespeare

Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton who is generally identified as the Fair Youth of Shakespeare's sonnets.

Southampton in his teens, c.1590–93, attributed to John de Critz

Scholars have been debating about the identity of the infamous Dark Lady that has inspired Shakespeare’s sonnets numbering 127-154. It appears her identity has been revealed, and she’s Italian.

http://www.swide.com/art-culture/literature/shakespare-sonnets-for-valentine-s-day-2013-the-darker-love/2013/02/14

http://www.arte.limewebs.com/en/sonnet01.html

                              

                                                                 Art Is Eternal

                               Poetry lifts the evil from the hidden beauty of the world,

                              and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                 ~ Shelley ~

          I realize that I saw part of the colossal statue of Ramesses from the Ramasseum in the British Museum in London back in 1992. However, it didn't make an impact on my emotions as it did to me when I read Ozymandias recently. I wish I could see the wrecked statue in the desert myself instead of reading the poem from Shelley who heard about it from a traveler who had seen it. I admire Ozymandias’ (Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, 1304-1237BC) conceited statement: “I am king of kings.” How arrogant!  On the other hand, it doesn't matter how great and powerful you are; time destroyed everything except the written words as the third line in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 says, “But you shall shine more bright in these contents.” Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 is another one of my favorites. Shakespeare had a total of 154 sonnets. Although the general thinking is that the first part of 126 sonnets is for a young Fair Lord, I prefer to think that Sonnet 55 is for the Dark Lady. Since today is Valentine’s Day, the last line of the sonnet is appropriate for us who love and are loved. “You live in this, and dwell in lover’s eyes.” Shelley’s Ozymandias and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 are different in its structure, theme, imagery, and tone. Yet, one of the similarities is that through the great poets, these poems provide enrichment and gratification to our mental competence.

         

          Ozymandias and Sonnet 55 are both using Iambic Pentameter, which means the line’s meter is divided into five pairs of two syllables; and each syllable pair sounds like de-DUMM. However, their rhyme schemes are different. During the Middle Ages, Romance languages spread from France to England. Poets in Italy developed the sonnet with a rhyme scheme of ABBA, ABBA, CDE, CDE, or ABBA, ABBA, CDC, CDC as a rich and expressive form. In England, the poetry of Shakespeare shows the Romantic spirit without restraint; Shakespeare wasn't tied down by conventions. Yet, he let his passion flow freely. Shakespeare was a famous dramatist when he died in 1616. Even though his plays were bringing him fortune, Shakespeare didn’t limit himself to one category. From 1593 to 1601, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets using the rhyme scheme which he created/enhanced (?): ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG as we see in Sonnet 55. Later on, the Romantic poets of the early 1800’s, for example Percy Bysshe Shelley, produced one of the richest times in English literature. Unfortunately, unlike Shakespeare, it was Shelly’s fate to be misunderstood by the people of his own time. Shelley was labeled as an evil influence, which I disagree. How can you call a free thinker and a free lover, evil? Luckily, Shelley kept writing so we can appreciate his poems. Ozymandias’ rhyme scheme is ABAB, ACDC, EDE, FEF, which is a variant of an Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet; its rhymes are near or off rhymes or perhaps the rhyming sounded closer in Shelley’s day than it does to us today. Shelly was very clever in the way he used his unique rhyme scheme in Ozymandias, whereas there is no comparison to any other style. Although these two sonnets differ in structure, both are beautiful and lead beyond themselves.

          Even though Shakespeare didn't say, I love you, in Sonnet 55, LOVE is the reason this poem is written, especially, when Shakespeare said his beloved will live in his poem and in

“lovers’ eyes.” Sonnet 55 also talked about WARFARE. Instead of just saying that this poem will last a long time, Shakespeare used extreme contrasts to show us how war (Mars is the Roman god of war) will destroy everything except his poetry. Both the poems, Ozymandias and Sonnet 55, focus in TIME. Ozymandias wanted to galvanize the present and future generations by his authority and achievements, but the ravages of time shattered his pride and his statue was lying face down broken and buried in the sand. Shelley mocked Ozymandias by depicting him as Shakespeare mocked at the marble and gilded monuments. Moreover, Shakespeare’s highlight on Mars is no match for his powerful rhyme to survive over time.

          The imagery part of these two sonnets is that they are not only stirring our imaginations back to the ancient time but we see the vivid pictures in only 14 lines. Shakespeare’s devastating war overturned statues links to Shelley’s “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone.” We get some disturbing images, but, what’s left? Here is the irony: The statues all crumble to dust, blackened by time, stretch nowhere in the desert. Everything drowns in a historical torrent of water. These images come and go. Human beings are so insignificant compared to the poets’ love, passion, and confidence.

          As we all know, nothing lasts forever; that means even the very worst political leaders as Ozymandias and the most beautiful women as Dark Lady---no matter how much they boast or is praised---all die at some point. Everything dies, including empires and love. But, Shelley’s and Shakespeare’s sonnets are forever. We’re still talking about them even after two hundred or four hundred years. It is their brilliant poetic rendering of the stories, not the subject of the stories themselves, which makes the poems so memorable as John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1991, states in Knowledge Its Own End, “viewed in itself, is simply the cultivation of the intellect, as such, and its object is nothing more or less than intellectual excellence.” Shelley’s Ozymandias, a brief epitome of poetic thinking, has outlasted empires. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 will live until the “ending doom” (Judgment Day.) We carry the powerful feelings and emotions of the artists who make us believe that there is always hope because Art Is Eternal. (1016 words)