Ozymandias by Percy Shelley v. Ponder by E.E. Cummings

While both poems, "Ozymandias" and "Ponder" speak about the idea of time and how fast it seems to run out, their approaches are vastly different. Percy Shelley seems to address the destructive quality of time, in which it destroys everything, and seems to leave behind and trample over anything or anyone that once was even slightly important. Shelley uses a very fluid and direct way of conveying what he considers to be the harsh reality of time. Using one long sentence from lines 3 through 8, Shelley adds a final touch with the words of an ancient authoritative "King Ozymandias" following it with a simple statement: "Nothing beside remains."With this structure, Shelley is able to give the reader a straight-forward and hopeless view of how time will eventually turn everything into dust, no matter how mighty or great it once was. Contrarily, E.E. Cummings focuses more on his lustful desires to substantiate his view that time runs out way too soon. Almost like a parody of 'Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell, Cummings uses interesting typography, structure, and grammar to get his point across. Completely opposite from Shelley,"Ponder" has multiple awkwardly placed caesuras and parenthesis. The main objective of Cummings' poem is to convince the woman to take advantage of the time she has and engage in sexual intercourse with the narrator, while Shelley simply describes the destructiveness of time with no ulterior motives.