Death is a leveller. Discuss the statement in reference to Ozymandias and Death the Leveller.

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"Death is a leveller". Discuss the statement in reference to "Ozymandias" and "Death the Leveller".

"Death is a leveller", this statement implies that death makes everyone equal or 'level'. In the poems, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley and "Death the Leveller" by James Shirley, they each portray this in similar ways. Each refer to this statement by using the notion of a powerful figure, who would seem to be 'invincible', forgotten through time, hence forth, making them equal to people who would have achieved very little within their lifetime.

In "Ozymandias", Percy Bysshe Shelley relates a description of a mysterious land laid to waste. The speaker recalls having met a traveller "from an antique land," who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country. At the very beginning of the poem, Shelley creates a remote landscape, unknown by many therefore distancing the narration. The title "Ozymandias" refers to the great Egyptian King Rameses II. This unfamiliar name gives the impression to the reader that it will about someone anonymous though during his life, he would have been very influential on the world around him. "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies" denotes the face of the statue damaged and worn throughout time, metaphorically, like his power lost though time. Shelley then describes the face of the statue more, " whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command" implies that throughout this rein over Egypt, he was a forceful and merciless ruler and wanted to be known for that and sculptor himself, also makes show it is understood. "Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things" explains to the reader that even though part of the statue has survived the abuse from nature, it still means nothing as it stands in a desolate landscape undiscovered by many. This links back to his reputation's destruction over time. However, Shelley adds "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" implying that even though he may have shunned those less powerful than him, in his heart, he did want them to survive in this ruling.
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"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

In this quotation, Shelley emphasises greatly the irony of this message scribed into his statue. Within Ozymandias' time, this statue would have represented the fear he caused to his people and the power he possessed over them. Yet now, it lies crumbled and forgotten in the middle of a desert inhabited by no one with his city in ruins around him. Shelley expresses how even the mighty have no power of death and how they are forgotten. The following line says ...

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