Compare how power is presented in My Last Duchess and one other poem.

At the end of each of the poems, we see that the speakers have different perspectives on how the effect power has. In Ozymandias, he has learnt that power eventually fades away and “nothing beside remains”; whereas in My Last Duchess, the speaker’s opinion on power does not change. He believes that he can control people by using money and threats. When the Duke “gave commands”, he was using his power to threaten her so that “all smiles stopped”. The noun “commands” suggests the great amount of power that the Duke had as it implies that there were people under his control. Furthermore, the noun “smiles” indicates that he can not only control his wife physically, he can also control her mentally. Moreover, the abrupt tone of “stopped” emphasises his power because he can immediately impose his control on her. On the other hand, in Ozymandias, the speaker eventually understand that power is fleeting. When the traveller sees the statue, “nothing beside remains” implying that over time Ozymandias has lost his power as his statue is now a “colossal wreck” and he is forgotten. The traveller endeavours to describes the essence of the power as “boundless and bare”; the alliteration here emphasises the emptiness of the desert in which the statue has been left. The adjective “colossal” implies that his power was once great but now it is a “wreck”. In both poems, the protagonists have power; however in Ozymandias his power fades, and in My Last Duchess, the Duke believes he has consistent power.