Shelley also used irony to explain the sort of person Ozymandias was.
i.e. when you read the words on the pedestal. My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: look of my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Yet at the beginning of the poem it states that the statue stood in the desert, which means that like Ozymandias his work has slowly eroded away to, which is ironic because he fought himself and his works would last till the ends of time.
However when we see Felix Randal we see a totally different gigantic man. ‘Felix Randal’ is written by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In this poem Hopkins shows Felix Randal to have been a big, large strong man who was very important in his village because he was a blacksmith and without him the farmers could not use the horses for farming because they needed horseshoes and if no food was produced no one could survive. He also was jolly and hardy-handsome so in other words he was a stereotypical blacksmith. But later on in the poem Hopkins describes Randal as a sort of child, who complained and cursed at first but later was tendered by a reprieve and ransom, and who had been comforted by the priest and who’s tears had been quenched.
Hopkins shows this by alliteration examples of this are big-boned and hardy-handsome. Also Hopkins very cleverly uses words to sound like the hammering of a blacksmith's hammer as he forges a horse show, examples of this are ‘grim forge’ and great grey drayhorse. Hopkins shows how strong Felix Randal is by telling you in the poem hat it takes four fatal diseases just to kill him and not just one fatal disease like a normal man. Hopkins also changes the tone and pace of the second stanza, which I think gives the impression of Felix Randal’s heart pumping faster as the diseases that plagued him began to make it harder for this heart to pump blood around his body.
I think Felix Randal is the character I like best because Ozymandias is a person who only thinks of himself and he is a dictator who is commanding, cold and thinks he is bigger than the earth, he also thinks he will last forever which he clearly does not which I think is just what he deserves. He also used to throw out orders to people and expect it to be done with no complaints and quickly. He also used people to feel powerful and in control, which I think, is strange because he had built the town around him and he ruled it. So he was powerful and in control already. But Ozymandias did have a few good qualities like his ability to build things from basically nothing like the city and how he did not like to be messed around, which I think is good because he wont be distracted if he is trying to make an important decision. But Felix Randal is big and jolly, and is not controlling or bossy like Ozynandias. He does not want to live forever he just wants o live a normal life span, which I think he deserves. Felix Randal also comes through great difficulties to accept his fate, which I think is incredible. Felix Randal also lost everything, his strength, size and his job. Because of all this I like Felix Randal better but he does have some bad points, like before he accepted the diseases he cursed, pined and complained. I prefer Felix Randal to Ozyamandias because among other things I think Felix Randal is a much better person and he is able to accept things much better because I think if Ozymandias could see what had happened to his city and statue he could not accept it.
I think ‘Felix Randal’ is the better poem because its writer Gerard Manley Hopkins is very smart in the way he writes his poems he uses a lot of different techniques in this work like alliteration, changing the tone and pace in the different stanza’s into his poems like you would find in the place in the poem. E.g. ‘grim forge’ and great grey drayhorse sound like a hammer beating a horseshoe into shape. Hopkins also uses words from the time the poem was written about examples of this are ‘when thou’ didst fettle’ and ‘thy tears’. Although Shelley does use some good techniques e.g. by making the words on some of the ends of the sentences in the poem rhyme which is very simple but effective. But overall I think ‘Felix Randal’ is the better poem because the techniques used in it are a lot more interesting and harder to use.
