Compare Hero by Mick Gowar and Ozymandias Essay Example

interested in one thing - winning. He doesn't care about the process or getting prestige for a good show, just winning.

He also suggests the British aren't as competitive as other countries by saying, 'we English are an odd lot:: like to believe we love the slob that fails, the gentlemanly third;' and that we should be more competitive when it comes to sport. I agree with this to a certain extent as recently one of Britain's so-called top tennis players has received an OBE for contributions to sport when he has won only a couple major titles. Although I tend to agree with this, I don't think foul play and cheating is the way to go about it.

He also says he 'didn't have much use for girls. , which implies he was impotent, probably due to another side effect of the steroids. He mentions he needs to 'keep the body pure' as well. This is ironic as he is taking steroids designed for animals. Is that keeping the body pure? A certain amount of self delusion is involved here. In the fifth verse, the 'Hero' says he would do it again and 'pay the devil's price'. If he had realised how he would've ended up, I don't think he would have done it at all. I mean, I can't imagine him wanting to be in a nursing home, relying on others to help him, because he is quite ill and being controlled by nurses for just one day of glory.

Can you? Ozymandias seems to be set in an ancient civilisation. The most likely one was Ancient Greece because of the description of the statue and

surrounding area. Also, in the first line the poet says 'I met a traveller from an antique land', although he could have been an Aztec, Inca or an Ancient Egyptian. The conversation between the poet and the traveller takes place in a desert. The writer uses the sand to express there is vast emptiness where there was once a great thriving civilisation. They talk about a, once great, ruler and his downfall.

Words to describe power and strength and decline of power are scattered throughout the poem to define the rise and fall of a great leader. These include, 'colossal', 'command', 'decay' and 'lifeless'. Also two quotes by Ozymandias implies that he thought he was as good or better than God. 'king of kings' and 'ye Mighty' both suggest this as a capital letter at the start of 'Mighty' insinuates immense power as does 'king of kings'. Perhaps this was his downfall. The detailed description of the statue gives an insight into what Ozymandias was like.

He was very conceited but never smiled. Just a haughty, mocking expression was the only facial visage ever seen, it seems. This, as well as other references, hints that Ozymandias was a tyrant. The biggest difference between the two would be that Hero is written in slang terms and very informally whereas Ozymandias is more formal and uses words from the older English vocabulary. Also, Ozymandias is structured as it is a sonnet but Hero has no specific structure, layout or rhythm which, I think, helps the reader to realise the dangers involved in steroids.

The setting is also a major difference as Ozymandias is set in an ancient desert and 'Hero'

is in a modern day nursing home. I prefer the poem, Hero, because I can relate to it in modern day life. Especially in the past few years, a lot of performance enhancing, drug-related incidents have come out into the open and, thankfully, have been taken very seriously to attempt to wipe out cheating. Although, Ozymandias is a more traditional poem, showing great leadership, greed and downfall, which is a typical plot in poems, stories and films. This makes it a bit unoriginal, compared with 'Hero'.