How do Shakespeare and the studied poets use literary techniques to communicate their ideas about fate?

The poets Persy Bysshe Shelley, Rudyard Kipling and Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet all use similar techniques to express their ideas about fate, they use techniques such as iambic meters and metaphors. Fate is when your path has been set and you cant change anything that is going to happen no matter what you do, it is also never ending.

IAMBIC METER

Fate is shown in Persy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias, though and iambic meter which is a rhythmic beat, this technique shows fate because fate is never ending and so is an iambic meter, and example for this is the lines ” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.” the rhythmic beat which is never ending suggests Ozymandias life from birth to death.

Fate is also shown though iambic meter in Romeo and Juliet because in this play it suggests time and this is what is most focused on. It reflects the time because  in Romeo and Juliet time is naturally going to fast and there is nothing you can do to slow it down, an example for this is the fact that the whole story of Romeo and Juliet falling in love then ending with them both being dead all happened within 5 days.

‘A Song in a Storm’ Rudy Kipling uses iambic meter to suggest fate in the way it is written. An example for this is in the first four lines, ” Be well assured that on our side The abiding oceans fight, Through headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night.” This is where i see the structure on this poem. Fate is like the waves in this poem because of the way the waves act which is very violent around the ship and is shown as an iambic meter because the waves are rhythmic and relentless.

METAPHOR:

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses metaphors to portray fate, an example of this is before romeo went to the party he said “for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars” which means god has given him the opportunity to go to this party but romeo has a bad feeling about it. Romeo then says ” By some vile forfeit of untimely death.” which is saying how the party could lead to hes own death. The last part which Romeo says is “But He that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail!” which Shakespeare is trying to make Romeo say is that he puts his fate in the hands of God and letting God steer him wherever he wants meaning that romeo is a ship and god is the sailor of the ship. later on in the play Romeo says the opposite of what he was saying earlier on, “i defy you stars” which basically mean that he hates god and regrets following the path he said he was going to follow, but although Romeo said this it doesn’t change any path in which he is aiming for because at the end of the play he kills himself.

A Song in a Storm uses metaphors to portray fate in the line “Through headlong wind and heaping tide Make us their sport to-night.” which means the ocean and the waves are playing with the mind of the men on ship. Another metaphorical line is “then welcome fates discourtesy.” which means accept the fact that fate could kill you, not only in this part of the poem this is said but the word fate is mentioned. In Ozymandias Persy Bysshe Shelley did not use any metaphors throughout the whole poem because Shelley’s poem is more direct to the others as they use different techniques to expand on the story of their poem. I think Shelley does this because he does not use any metaphors as he wants the poem to be shorter and more direct.

STRUCTURE

Rudy Kipling ‘A song in a Storm’ uses a technique which is called a Volta which is when the story changes in the poem, an example of this is in the last two lines “The game is more than the player of the game And the ship is more than the crew!” this is where i see a change to the story of this poem which is addressed to soldiers and tells them to never turn back, never give up and be willing to sacrifice their lives. The word fate is mentioned in this poem in the line “Sing, welcome Fate’s discourtesy Whereby it will be found,etc. ” Persy Bysshe Shelley ‘Ozymandias’ has a structure which supports the meaning of what Ozymandias is trying to say and what has happened to him. Persy Bysshe Shelley uses a volta in the line ” and on the pedestal these words appear ” this line is where the story changes and it shows that time passed and nothing could change that. I think that these two poems have some sort or similarity because they use similar techniques such as a volta which is where they both change the story of the poem.

Shakespeare’s Romeo &  Juliet uses a lot of techniques in his play, Shakespeare uses fate because at the beginning of the play there is a prologue which tells you what is going to happen at the end, this is linked to fate because you cannot change how the play is going to end which is like fate which you cannot change. The difference to this story is that firstly it is a play so it is going to be laid out differently and also uses techniques that you cannot use in a poem e.g a prologue which cannot be used in  poems as they are much shorter that plays and have different structures. Shakespeare uses the technique of foreshadowing in the prologue e.g “The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love” which means at one point of this play Romeo and Juliet will die with some relation to love. Foreshadowing is related to fate because it tells you at the beginning of the play what is going to happen at the end and you cannot change how the play will end which is like fate, there is nothing you can do to change anything as it is already set out. The structure is different to Ozymandias because Shelley does not use techniques such as foreshadowing. Also Rudyard Kipling uses repetition in  song in a storm e.g ” welcomes fate’s discourtesy ” its repetitive because it is continuously used throughout the poem.

Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in the Elizabethan times. This was a time when Christians strongly belived in God. Percy Bysshe wrote Ozymandiaz In the 18th century when England was going through alot of development. Rudyard Kipling wrote A song in a storm during the war which was 1914-1918. Fate is evident in both poems and the play using literary devices such as Metaphors, Iambic meter, Volta’s and Repetition which helps it give a better idea about fate. I believe that they all worked well to show fate as i fount it possible to find fate through literary devices.