Essay 16

Maddy Neff

English 9

Mr. Salsich

February 17, 2010

A Ruined Statue and a Garden in the City:

An Essay about Two Poems

What could an ancient crumbling statue and a tranquil park in the middle of London have in common? On the surface, the poems "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and "Written in Kensington Gardens," by Matthew Arnold, seem to have completely unrelated messages. If the reader delves deeper into the words, however, similar meanings can be discovered. Both poems bemoan the loss of Earth's purity.

TS The main message in "Ozymandias" is despair for humanity as industrialization brings about the ruin of nature. SD A main thread in the poem is the misuse of power. CM Ozymandias was a great king, with a "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command;" this description does not make for a kind-hearted, merciful ruler. CM The poem seems to tell of the irrevocable wounds a tyrannical leader can inflict on the natural world, as well as the people he rules. SD When a harsh king wants to strengthen his empire, he demands his people to do the work, and they must comply; this could destroy everything organic and living. CM In "Ozymandias," the author suggests that a ruler became a tornado of power, destroying all the life around. CM The ruler's greedy thirst drank away nature; the land became filled with wreckage, "boundless and bare," the futile soils stretching for miles. SD "Ozymandias" is an example of how industrialization pollutes the purity of nature, spills the oil of machines and the smog of smokestacks onto the white cloth of the Earth. CM Humanity wanted more, and due to this dissatisfaction, everything green and living was extracted from nature to build dirty, "lifeless things." CM An untainted environment was infected with avarice. CS Percy Bysshe Shelley conveys his grief for the natural world at the hands of a ruthless, power-hungry ruler in his poem "Ozymandias."

TS The poem "Written in Kensington Gardens" also describes the destruction of nature at the hands of mankind. SD The speaker sits in a lush meadow, pulsing with life, yet he sees that this place is a dying breed. CM In the garden, "peace [is]for ever new," and the "blowing daisies [and] fragrant grass" make the speaker feel joyful and unperturbed. CM However, "the girdling city's hum" reminds him that this beautiful garden is one of the last places left that hasn't been poisoned by mankind's quest for development and power. SD All the serenity of the natural world has been replaced by man-made chaos. CM When the speaker looks past the life thriving in Kensington Gardens, he sees the skyscrapers and dirt-choked air beyond the "black-crowned, red-boled pine trees," and he realizes "that peace has left the upper world, and now keeps only in the grave." CM This seems to suggest that real rest can only be found in death, because no living thing can escape the hectic world mankind has created. SD Nevertheless, the speaker adopts a hopeful attitude near the end of "Written in Kensington Gardens," asking the flora and fauna around him to show "that there abides a peace of thine, man did not make and cannot mar." CM The speaker is optimistic, looking for life that hasn't been damaged by commercial pollutants. CM Perhaps all is not lost after all, and some of nature's green purity can survive despite man's destructive ways. CS "Written in Kensington Gardens" is a woeful poem, mourning the peaceful nature lost to man's destructive development, but it also offers a bit of hope.

At a glance, "Ozymandias" and "Written in Kensington Gardens" are two poems each with a very different face. One has a rather elusive meaning, hidden beneath a story about a traveller and a statue fallen in the desert, and the other seems simple, about a nice day spent in the park. However, after closer inspection, it can be seen that both poems discuss how mankind's desire for power and development left nature in ruins. Under different disguises, "Ozymandias" and "Written in Kensington Gardens" tell like stories about mankind's smear on the natural world.

Self Assessment

1. One writing issue I am continuing to work on: I am still continuing to weed out unnecessary words and make my writing clean and unified. I tried to do my best with this issue in this essay, but I could probably still improve.

2. One possible strong point I see in this essay: I think I did a good job with blending the quotes into my own writing, as well as using them to prove my points in the paragraphs.

3. One possible weak point I see in this essay: I think I could have made my opening and closing paragraphs a little more interesting. I don't really use captivating hooks in either of them, I just restate what I have already said using different words.