The poem “Ozymandias” tells a story about a traveler, who reveals his or her story to the narrator of the poem. The author of the poem is Percy Bysshe Shelley. He keeps the interest of the poem by using constant sounds and images that are clear and concise, by supplying mystery with words that have more than one meaning, and by using a spectrum of words that capture the interpreters attention.
These series of sounds are noticeable from the second line of the text. Shelley uses the “s” sound more frequent than any other tone. This does two things for the poem; first it takes the reader to a level of easy reading and tends to make the reader find the rhythm easier; second it sets up Shelley’s other constant sounds to let them stand out more so. Lines such as “Trunkless legs of stone,” “shattered visage lies,” and “stamped on this lifeless things,” make the poem easy on the ears and give the poem a rhythm to follow. Shelley then puts the word sneer in front of cold command. By placing the “s” sound in front of the harsh “c” it tends to make the statement more profound. The last line of the poem reads “The lone and level sands stretch far away.” This singals the reverse of the “c” constant; it sets the “l” sound as distant and by itself by breaking the rhythm then coming back to it. This also has the effect of letting the setting come back into view. After he creates a setting in the desert, this is a mental image to grasp how desolate the surroundings are.
Shelley then supplies mystery to the reader. He uses words which have a meaing that could be explained in diffe…
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…ture notice. In the six lines above it becomes boring and uninteresting, until the word passion. Everyone seems to understand passion as love or a desire to have someone, this creates interest again. Athough, the word is describing the scupltor’s desire not to do this artwork; it gives a false image to be sure the reader is still paying attention.
Do to Shelley’s use of sounds, mystery, and aray of word choice, drawing an image of where this is set and who the characters are is completely left to the reader. But, Shelley does not give alot of options, just alot of different opinions to be formed. He also blend the sounds, mystery, and word choices together brillantly.
Dialogic and Formal Analysis of Thomas Gray’s Elegy (Eulogy) Written in a Country Churchyard
Dialogic and Formal Analysis of Thomas Gray’s Elegy (Eulogy) Written in a Country Churchyard
By combining the formal and dialogical approaches, patterns and voices within the text seemingly interplay and overlap to reveal a deeper sense of the author’s intentions. While the formalistic analysis focuses on the text and the unfolding themes within, the dialogical analysis recognizes “…the essential indeterminacy of meaning outside of the dialogic – and hence open – relationship between voices” (HCAL 349). When applied to “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” these two approaches collaborate to emphasize recurring concepts and establish a twisted sense of authority.
Formal analysis identifies the initial elements of a work and determines their significance in relation to what remains. By selecting such a title as an “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” the author is providing the reader with an indication for what will follow. Amazingly, the poem is exactly what the title states. It is an “elegy,” expressing grief and lamentation for the humble unknown villagers who hav…