To Ozymandias Dying Young....

Time waits for no man. Thus, it's constant and relentless motion through nature has led many poets to question and even challenge it's power over all. Why must time wither away greatness?  Why must it quickly pass through times of joy? How can I become it's master? These are just a few of the questions that are posed and somewhat answered in Ozymandias, by Percy Shelley, and To An Athlete Dying Young, by A. E. Houseman. One reflects on time's amazing destructive power and how no object, idea, or person can escape it's horrific aging process. While the other praises an athlete who seems to have truly mastered time only by merely escaping it through death. Therefore, it can be said that Shelley reveals the terrible strength of time and Houseman poses a solution to it's seemingly omnipotent force on mankind. For just like Ozymandias, the Athlete was all-powerful too. In fact, there is a point when they were both at the peak of their greatness and prowess. A point when nothing but time held any sway over them. However, this is where Houseman comes to the somber conclusion that the only way to live everlasting and be immortal in this state of euphoria and ultimate power is to die or, in Ozymandias' case, disappear at that very moment. Therefore, it is quite obvious that these two poems complement each other. For though they reflect on entirely different subjects, the underlying themes are one in the same. The case proposed by Shelley is answered by the bleak realization of Houseman.