Power of Nature
Ozymandias
Despite the efforts of humans to make a stamp on the earth, nature will always outlast everything:
- ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert’
- ‘on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies’
- ‘Nothing beside remains.’
- ‘Round the decay of that colossal wreck’
- ‘The lone and level sands stretch far away’
Extract from the Prelude
During his journey in a boat, the young boy is forced to realise the awesome power of nature:
- ‘One summer evening’
- Small circles glittering idly in the moon’
- ‘summit of a craggy ridge, The horizon’s utmost boundary’
- ‘far above Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky’
- ‘the grim shape Towered up between me and the stars’
- ‘measured motion like a living thing, Strode after me.’
Exposure
Soldiers faced extreme weather conditions, whilst they were deployed at war.
- Merciless iced east winds that knife us…’
- ‘Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles’
- ‘ait that shudders black with snow’
- ‘sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew’
- _‘wind’s nonchalance’ _
- ‘Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces-‘
- ‘His frost will fasten on this mud and us’
- ‘All their eyes are ice’
Storm on the Island
The storm reflects the power of nature and how manipulate the actions of humans:
- ‘leaves and branches Can raise a chorus in a gale’
- It blows full Blast’
- ‘But there are no trees, no natural shelter’
- ‘You might think that the sea is company’
- We are bombarded by the empty air’
Bayonet Charge
It is often forgotten that nature is also damaged, during times of conflict:
- ‘Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge’
- Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame’
- ‘mouth wide Open silent, its eyes standing out.’
Poppies
Nature is used as a symbol to communicate deeper meanings and concepts:
- ‘poppies had already been placed’
- ‘white cat hairs’
- ‘released a song bird from its cage’
- ‘a single dove flew from the pear tree’
- ‘The dove pulled freely against the sky’
Tissue
Nature is powerful, because it has always existed and will continue long after generations of people:
- ‘The sun shines through their borderlines’
- ‘the marks that rivers make’
- ‘roads, railtracks, mountainfolds’
- ‘a grand design //with living tissue’
- ‘turned into your skin’
Kamikaze
Exposure to nature reduces negative emotions and tension. The pilot changes his direction, because nature reminds him of the benefits of living:
- ‘he must have looked far down at the little fishing boats’
- ‘green-blue translucent sea’
- ‘arcing in swathes like a huge flag… in the figure of eight’
- ‘dark shoals of fishes… swivelled towards the sun’
- ‘turbulent inrush of breakers’
- ‘cloud-marked mackerel, black crabs, feathery prawns… whitebait’
- ‘tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous’