Similarities Between Death Be Not Proud And Ozymandias

One of the certainties of the human experience is death. In everyday life the topic of death is a taboo. Most people abstain from discussing death, as it is a controversial subject that highlights humanity’s fear of the unknown. The fear itself is derived from the missing knowledge of the afterlife. Although many avoid dialogue in this matter; some do ponder on the subject. Furthermore, the concept of death and afterlife has been discussed throughout the ages, by not just individuals, but by groups of various natures. Everyone from scientist, doctors and academics to religious clergy, philosophers and poets. John Donne’s “Death, be not proud” and Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” though have contrasting features; they both examine death and life after death.
John Donne was an Anglican minister during his lifetime in Elizabethan England. He was deeply religious, and my of his poems have Christian symbolisms. John Donne in his poem personifies death as
Ozymandias is the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. Shelly’s work is an attack on the powerful. Shelley was born into the English aristocracy. Though coming from a privileged background, Percy was critical to the elite, especially the British monarchy. He stresses that the powerful who believe that power lasts forever forget that death spares no one. Ozymandias the great pharaoh of Egypt was called the king of kings. He was notorious for constructing great statues of himself. Shelley’s recollection of Ozymandias is a metaphor for the ruling class of his day. Ozymandias starts with a tale of how Shelley met a traveler from Egypt. In the first line “I Met a traveler from an antique land,” (1). Here Shelley implies Egypt as an antique land, antique being synonym to ancient. Furthermore, even though the body withers, the legacy individuals leave behind transcends time. Shelley conveys that certain ideas are timeless such as