Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," is considered to be one of the finest sonnets of all time. It has given us an excellent lesson which teaches us that possessions don't cause immortality. Even though we may try to overcome our mortality by leaving behind our footprints of our existence, it is not that easy. To Shelley, no one in the world lives forever, but their great works continue long past the individual is gone. On the other hand, John Donne's, "Death be not Proud, though some have called thee", addresses the facts that "Death" is not the end of the life but in many ways a new beginning. Donne points out to the fact that whether we are afraid of death or not, it doesn't matter because we have to face it ultimately. He uses his creative styles and own techniques to show us how different "Death" is for him. .
An author's view on some aspects of life is often reflected in their literary works. Sometimes various thoughts, feelings or mood of the author is also portrayed through the various rhythms or patterns we observe in their writings. Donne has used iambic pentameter as medium represent his ideas. "Penta" because each line of the sonnet could be read in five syllables like: "Death be/ not proud/ though some/ have called/ ed thee" – "Mighty/ and dread/ full, for, thou art/ not so," and so on. His sonnet also has a rhyme scheme which makes it even more fun to read. The fourteen lines could be subdivided into a rhyme scheme of ABBA, ABBA, CDDC and AE. The lines that have been given the same letter rhymes with each other. Donne provokes us to confront death and defeat it rather than just being a victim of death, and thus it creates a mood. Although Shelly's, "Ozymandias" uses unrecognizable rhyme scheme, we can fell a sense of rhyme that develops in the poem. His sonnet also has a similarity to Donne's poem in the fact that it uses the same iambic pentameter.