Character of Time

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"Ozymandias"
-by Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert...Near them, one the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,"

Taken from Shelley’s words, we are able to see the image of the head and legs of the statue of Ozymandias half buried in sand. In this specific part of the poem that I chose, Shelley is using descriptive language to portray the characteristics of the ancient king, Ozymandias. Words such as trunkless, shattered, frown, wrinkled, sneer, and cold, give us a further descriptive image of Ozymandias. This is the more concrete image of the idea that Ozymandias was a cold and domineering king. Meanwhile, the more abstract idea presented in this poem is the idea about time and history. At first we are able to see the image of Ozymandias and his personality through the physical description of his statue. However, the more abstract idea of time lies with the description of the statue half buried in sand. This allows the interpretation that time can make anything fade away. Judging from the fact that his statue was not well kept and polished through time, Ozymandias’ people probably did not consider him a justly king to honor. The image of Ozymandias statue half buried in sand shows that what is left of Ozymandias’ legacy is only preserved by the sculptor’s work. This gives the idea that art are more likely to last longer through time than humans. Thus, we should acknowledge the importance of the role of the sculptor in this poem. The sculptor himself is actually the one who is portraying the characteristics of Ozymandias along with his biases and in his own perspective of who the king was. He holds the power of time preservation because his art will last through time and people will tell the story of king Ozymandias using the statue that the sculptor created. Thus, we see that history is preserved through arts and literature and these are very powerful tools that are often overlooked by people. Reading his poem, I believe that Shelley was very effective in communicating both his concrete and abstract idea using his descriptive image of the statue and the erosion of sand through time. The image of the statue buried in sand is the ultimate image given to reader that enhances our understanding of Shelley’s ideas.

Option #2

The speaker in T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” appears to be a man who is having an internal battle with himself. The lines “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo./ And indeed there will be time/ To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?’” (35-38) illustrates how the speaker often wonders what would happen if he actually engage in a conversation with a woman. However, he answers himself by assuming that he will only suffer rejection from these women. He appears to be tormented with thoughts of what he could have done. This provides the idea that the speaker is an introverted and timid person. He often worries about his actions and how society would judge him base on them. Also the speaker claims that “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;/ Am an attendant lord, one that will do/ To swell a progress, start a scene or two,” (113-115). By this comparison, the speaker shows that he does not think very highly of himself. In addition, he appears to believe and feel that he is just a secondary character in his own life, contrasting to the idea that a person often sees themselves as the star of their own life.

The speaker in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a very cold and domineering man and husband. Base on his words and actions as describe in the poem, the man appears to perceive his wife as his possession among everything else. He resented that he could not completely control her personality and life. An example from the poem is the man’s anger towards the lack of control over who his wife smiles at. The man describes this in the lines “Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,/ Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile?/ This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands (43-46). This establishes the speaker’s character to be a very commanding and arrogant man. He justifies that his former wife’s faults were that she did not direct all her attention to him.

Both of the speakers from Eliot and Browning’s poems are very self involved and introverted people. However, the speaker in Eliot’s poem display low self esteem and appears very timid. As illustrated in the poem, the speaker appears to be filled with neurotic thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, the speaker in Browning’s poem displays a great amount of arrogance and ego. As described, he resented the idea that his wife does not direct all her attention only to him.

Thesis Poem

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Thesis: Even though Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” appears to capture and present a specific image and message to the readers, the poem’s form and punctuation also allow readers to develop their own images and messages through their own interpretations.

Sonnet 73

I chose Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, quatrain 1 that consists of four lines.
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”
In my translation this would be:
When you see the time of year where yellow leaves have fallen and branches are bare in the cold weather, you should think of me. When the birds have left and no music or joy can be heard, you should think of me.
In this part, the speaker is examining the effect on things around him during the season of autumn. He feels that everything has wilted and is about to die as the ending of a year is approaching. Likewise, we are able to clearly see in the next quatrain that the speaker is comparing his life to a season. Like the metaphor he uses, the speaker feels that he has reached the point in his life where his youth is gone and everything is ending. However, his life has not ended yet. Similarly, we see that during the season of autumn, nature began to wilt and eventually dies off when winter comes. The first quatrain introduces readers vaguely to the idea of the ending of certain things. Then the following next two quatrains present more narrow idea of aging and death. The most important element in this poem is time. In the first quatrain, the speaker compares his aging to a season, which is longer than a day, as compared in quatrain two. Then in the third quatrain, time is even shorter as we see the speaker compare his life to the short lived fire. Readers can feel that time is being compressed as the poem proceed from quatrain one to quatrain three, giving this poem a suspenseful tone.
This Sonnet takes the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet’s metrical foot is iamb and it has a pentameter line length, also known as iambic pentameter. The first quatrain has an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme with the couplet summarizing the theme of the poem. The form of the poem enhances the fluency of the words. Although, this restrict the numbers of syllables to ten but it connects and relate each of the fourteen lines of the poem together. The rhythm of the poem is very nice and steady as each line follows the iambic pentameter form. Each line illustrates a vivid image of things wilting and fading away as they approach the end.