Bysshe Shelley presents nature’s power as gentle but
ultimately a power that defeats human power, whereas in Owens in Exposure
presents nature’s power also as defeating humans but it is an aggressive,
violent, murderous power.
In Ozymandius we are told that the “lone and level sands
drift on”, this alliterative l sound is soft and gentle, a contrast to the
alliterative plosive b sound of the “boundless and bare” description of
Ozymandius (based on the human Pharaoh Ramsees II). The contrasting
alliterations highlight the gentleness of nature, and the violent and
aggressive nature of the human ruler. However what is important is that the
poem (a single stanza) ends with the reference to nature. This ending is
significant because it symbolises nature’s finality - it is nature that remains the constant, not
human power which “shatters”. Therefore nature’s power is presented as having
permanency and defeats human power as it outlives it. Nature’s power also
defeats human power in ‘Exposure’, however it is not a gentle power as “the
winds knive us”. This personification of the wind highlights the active power
that nature takes in defeating humans. Interestingly the poem is based on WWI
and life in the tranches and Owens is highlighting not the conditions suffered
due to the human conflict, but rather nature’s conflict and power wrought on
man in the trenches, and shows it to be deadly (unlike in Ozymandius).
Furthermore the idea of kniving something suggest intent to kill, mame and to
break down – in this case the wind (nature) wishes to kill humans.
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