Ozymandias Vs The Prelude

Compare how poets present the effects of nature in ‘The Prelude’ and one other poem from Power
& Conflict.
Wordsworth presents the effect of an experience of nature upon himself: in his autobiographical poem ‘The
Prelude’, he recounts a formative experience: a literal journey in a boat on a lake becomes a metaphorical journey
from being a naïve child to becoming a poet (a figure, like a bard, who can convey sublime feelings and essential
truths). Differently, Shelley presents the effect of the physical world upon a person in a position of absolute power:
he uses his philosophical sonnet ‘Ozymandias’ to show how the reign of a pharaoh and the dominance of an ancient
civilization has been all but swept away by the desert sands and the sands of time.
Shelley begins his sonnet with the effects of nature upon a statue. The monolith was “vast” and “colossal”. So, when
it was built it was intended to represent the power of the pharaoh; like all other rulers, Ramses II clearly wanted to
control and propagate his own image. But, a traveller recalls that the “half sunk” and “trunkless” statue has been
overcome by the “lone and level sands [that] stretch far away”. This setting is a poetic fiction, poetic license added
by Shelley – in order to create an impression of empty desert, and to use sibilance to create the sound of erosion.
Given the statue was built to symbolise the “works” of Ramses II, the statue therefore (ironically) comes to
symbolise the demise of his legacy. This demise is perhaps shown through the degrading rhyme scheme also
(atypical for the form of a sonnet).
The irony of this demise caused by the effects of nature is especially apparent in the somewhat oxymoronic phrase
“colossal wreck” – it is huge, but it is not mighty. At the centre of his poem, Shelley places a defining example of this
excellent irony: the pharaoh Ozymandias has inscribed his belief in himself as the “king of kings”, and commands
“look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair”. But, what immediately follows is the short declarative “Nothing
beside remains”. The pointedness of this statement is convey through the shift from an iambic rhythm to the use of
a trochaic foot. Then, the caesura adds bathos, thus emphasizing the humour of the illustration: nature has ensured
that little to nothing survives of the pharaoh’s legacy.
But the natural world is not limited to geography: the effects of time are also explored by Shelley. It is possible to
regard Shelley’s use of different languages as a means of illustrating the falls of numerous empires across eons. The
pharaoh represents the reign of Egypt, while the name “Ozymandias” might recall Greek civilisations, and the
“visage” (being a French cognate) might remark upon the very recent fall of Napoleon, the French so-called
emperor. So, Shelley explores the effects of nature to speak truth to power, and perhaps even warn his current
despotic King, George III, the subject of another one of his sonnets (perhaps one explanation for this choice of
poetic form).
Different to this intention and form, Wordsworth chooses a monologue to explore a more personal subject: the
effect of nature upon his own psyche. He begins setting is a summer evening - a time when we are attracted to
licentiousness and to nature, as conveyed by the speaker’s suggestion that he was “led by her”, i.e. the female
personification of the environment. The speaker initially views the setting as attractive, and almost fantastical: he
sees “smooth circles glittering idly in the moon” – which “melt” to become “one track of sparkling light”, creating an
impression of beauty and calm. The element of attraction, fairytale and folklore then begins to imbue the speaker
with confidence: he begins to believe he rows in an “elfin pinnace”, ascending towards the “horizon” and the “stars”
– suggesting his imagination is becoming over-active.
But, the mood alters dramatically when nature begins to take a different effect. The speaker encounters the
“craggy steep”: it is “black and huge”, and possessed of a “voluntary power instinct”, creating an ominous
impression of an intimidating and unconquerable landscape – one that evokes the sublime feelings of awe and fear.
(This mood is explicit, of course: Wordsworth himself feels a ‘grave and serious mood’). At this pivotal moment, and
from his juvenile perspective, nature is personified as an adversary: it “upreared its head”, “towered up between
[him] and the stars”, and “strode after [him]”; it feels to Wordsworth as if he is struggling against the environment
for his life. The repetition of “struck and struck again” conveys his physical exertion and determination, and equally
his relative inferiority to the mountain that seems “growing still” against his efforts, i.e. it does not move, and yet
seems to increase in power.
The final effect of nature upon Wordsworth is therefore fear of his own mortality. It is ironic that the young
Wordsworth at first sees “nothing” between him and the stars because the last part of the poem is characterised by
this nothingness, this absence and negation, emphasised by anaphora “There hung darkness […] No familiar shapes
[…] no pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky, no colours of green fields”. Instead, “huge and mighty forms” fill his
thoughts. Yet, these are perhaps the concepts, essential cosmic truths that Wordsworth the poet comes to express
later in life in his poetry (often characterised by backdrops of the same setting, the Lake District). But, at this
moment described, the repetition of “huge” across the poem implies that (as a child) he has not yet developed the
words to express his profound knowledge. Nevertheless, the blank verse is perhaps used to reflect the unceasing
fluidity of the water on the lake, and the waves of Wordsworth’s thoughts: his “brain worked with a dim and
undetermined sense” – almost as if in a state of deep, subconscious meditation.
This is the effect of human nature: it is human nature to seek and communicate truth – an idea within both poems.
In ‘Ozymandias’, Shelley expresses speakers also traverse time and land: first, a voice tells us that he “met a
traveller”. This voice then reports what the traveller “said”, when he recounts what he witnessed in an “antique
land”. The third voice is then the reported speech of Ozymandias, whose words live on as a result of being
“stamped” on otherwise “lifeless” stone. Shelley thus presents the power of humanity to speak beyond the page (to
us, the reader of the present and the future) – and to revive voices of the past. Shelley’s poem is therefore a hopeful,
inspiring, humanist presentation of the wonders of mankind (but the younger Wordsworth is not quite there yet….)

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Compare how poets present the effects of nature in ‘The Prelude’ and one other poem from Power

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