Compare the treatment of time in Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias", Shakespeare's Sonnet LXV "Since Brass nor Stone", Shakespeare's Sonnet II "When Forty Winters", Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time".

        This Sonnet is fairly irregular in its rhyme scheme. It is mostly in Iambic pentameter but the first word in the fourth line of the sestet is a trochee and this creates emphasis on the word “Nothing.” This is one of many images about the lonely and barren land around the remainder of the statue. The surrounding land is “Boundless and Bare” showing no sign of life. This shows us that time removes all life even from the greatest empires.

This image is also seen in Shakespeare’s sonnet LXV: “Since brass nor stone nor earth, nor boundless sea” can stand against time. They represent two elements and if the elements cannot withstand time then we don’t have a chance. Also the sea is “boundless” but it is still controlled by the boundaries of time. Beauty still gives a “plea” against time’s “rage” of time, but nothing can withstand time’s sands slipping away. He goes on to say that summer tries to “hold out” and withstand the “wreckful siege” of time. This gives you the impression of time attacking the elements rather than in Shelley’s “Ozymandias” where time wears down the once great empire. The conceit of time attacking is reinforced by time’s “battering days” like a battering ram used in a siege against a fortress. Here the fortress is summer being whittled down by time. He then goes on to tell us that not even “rocks impregnable” of “Strong gates of steel” can withstand the onslaught of time. This is similar to “Ozymandias” where the whole antique city has been levelled by time’s onslaught. Also Shakespeare’s sonnet LXV shows us “time’s decay” and then he gives us some examples of how no one can hold back “time’s swift foot.” Not even a “Strong hand” can stop time. There is a reference to this in Shelley’s “Ozymandias” where time cannot be stopped and an entire city could not defend against time. Shelley’s “Ozymandias” gives no solution to this riddle. In this sonnet by Shakespeare you get an answer how to defeat time. The solution offered by Shakespeare is that beauty “may still shine bright” in “black ink.” By this he means that beauty will remain in his poem eternally as words can defeat time. He uses “may” as he is not confident that his poem will survive eternally. However in Shelley’s poem Ozymandias thought that his statue could last eternally but he was proved very wrong.

        There are solutions offered in the other poems as well. “To the virgins” by Herrick tells young women not to “tarry” and to “marry.” He could have been influenced to write this as he saw the English revolution and everything he thought was permanent was changed in a blink of and eye. Herrick uses the imperative mood. This gives the poem a sense of urgency and is a warning to young people to “marry” otherwise they will be left on the shelf for the rest of their long lonely days. He tells us “Time is still a-flying” and that you won’t be a “rosebud” forever. He uses a rosebud as that is a flower at the start of its life and it is fragile and precious like their young lives and he is trying to tell them they shouldn’t waste their lives. Herrick uses flower imagery again where today a flower is living and “tomorrow will be dying.” This tells young women that time is precious and that it doesn’t last long. To emphasise this he uses a regular metre, short lines, an iambic rhythm. All of this speeds up the poem and give it a feel of time ticking on and being unstoppable.

The first word of Herrick’s poem is “Gather” and is a Trochee although the rest of the poem is iambic. This makes it stand out and puts emphasis on it. This shows the urgency of the poem in the struggle against time. In the last line of the poem he uses long vowel sounds to show the long loneliness time can bring if you spend it alone. In Shelley’s “Ozymandias” also uses the use of long vowel sounds. There is also the use of enjambment in the eleventh and twelfth lines. This gives the poem a burst of speed and shows time rushing by like the alliteration in the poem with “race is run.” Herrick uses the theme of day and night to show the aging process. He talks about how the “higher the sun” rises the sooner its “race be run” This also supports the evidence that your youth is good as it is the morning of your life which is light and fresh whereas death is dark and cold. This is the solution Herrick gives us, a solution different to Shakespeare’s in LXV. He does give an answer unlike Shelley in “Ozymandias.” Herrick tells the “virgins” to “make much of time” and “breed” as well as “marry.”

        All of these poems give a good description of times destructive power but I believe that Shelley’s “Ozymandias” has the most meaning to me and has some very strong images of the desolate desert and the endless sands stretching away. I also like it that there is no solution offered to times destructive ways as this is what I also feel. There is no way to escape times “battering days” and all that will be left are “lone and level sands stretching far away” for all of us.