Read the passage from "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles."
So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,
That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
Wasting of old Time—with a billowy main—
A sun—a shadow of a magnitude.
Now, read the passage from "Ozymandias," another poem from the romantic period.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
How do the passages' themes compare?
Both passages have the theme "time erases everything."
"Elgin Marbles" has the theme "art outlasts even death," while "Ozymandias" has the theme "death comes to everything."
Both passages have the theme "nature is cruel."
"Elgin Marbles" has the theme "decay is inevitable," while "Ozymandias" has the theme "fame survives death."