OZYMANDIAS

BY: PERCY BYSHHE SHELLEY

Ozymandias is a fourteen line sonnet written in 1817 by a British

Romantic poet whose name is synonymous with radical social and political
change.

PERCY BYSHHE SHELLEY

P.B.Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 in West Sussex, England. He was

the eldest legitimate son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a Sussex landowner. He had
four younger sisters and a much younger brother. He received his early
education at home. His early childhood has been recounted in ‘The life of Percy
Bysshe Shelley ‘by his friend and cousin, Thomas Medwin.

He studied at Eton college and later at Oxford University. In 1811,

Shelley anonymously published a pamphlet called ’The necessity of Atheism’
which was brought to the attention of the university administration and he was
called to appear before the College’s fellows, including the Dean. His refusal to
repudiate the authorship of the pamphlet resulted in his expulsion from
Oxford on 25 March 1811. He wrote many short stories, essays, poems out of
which the best known are Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, The Cenci,
Adonais, Prometheus Unbound to name a few.

Percy Bysshe Shelley lived a chaotic, nomadic life but managed to

produce poetry and pamphlets for most of his adult years. He eventually
married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of philosopher William
Godwin, and eloped with her to Europe, living in a circle of artistic friends and
lovers which included for a time Lord Byron.
 Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley never achieved fame while he was alive,
but he did keep company with some extremely talented writers: his good
friends included George Gordon Lord Byron and John Keats, and he was
married to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Shelley’s most popular
works include ‘Ozymandias’, ‘To a Skylark‘, and ‘Prometheus Unbound’, which
is perhaps his most lauded work. Born into a well-to-do family, Shelley
eventually attended Oxford, where he first started his writing career. He was
expelled, however, when he refused to admit that he was the author of an
anonymous text on atheism.

Shelley met and fell in love with a young Mary Godwin, even though he
was already married. He abandoned his family to be with her; they married
after his first wife committed suicide, and Mary changed her surname to
Shelley. Tragically, Shelley died young, at the age of 29, when the boat he was
sailing got caught in a storm. His body washed to shore sometime later.

It was during this time that Shelley died at the age of 29 when his boat
sank in a storm in the Gulf of Spezia, Italy. Atheist, pacifist and vegetarian, he
was mourned by his close friends but back in England lacked support because
he was seen as an agitator.

His wide ranging poetry lives on. A sensitive nature poet, he wrote the
oft quoted To a Skylark and The Flower That Smiles Today but he could pen
political verse too, notably England in 1819.

Ozymandias is a political poem at heart, written at a time when

Napoleon’s domination of Europe was coming to an end and another empire,
that of Great Britain’s, was about to take over.
 In this poem, the speaker describes meeting a traveler “from an antique
land.” The title, ‘Ozymandias’, notifies the reader that this land is most
probably Egypt, since Ozymandias was what the Greeks called Ramses II, a
great and terrible pharaoh in ancient Egypt. The traveler tells a story to the
speaker. In the story, he describes visiting Egypt and seeing a large and
intimidating statue in the sand. He can tell that the sculptor must have known
his subject well because it is obvious from the statues face that this man was a
great leader, but one who could also be very vicious: he describes his sneer as
having a “cold command.” Even though the leader was probably very great, it
seems that the only thing that survives from his realm is this statue, which is
half buried and somewhat falling apart.

Shelley’s poem encapsulates metaphorically the outcome of such

tyrannical wielding of power – no leader, King, despot, dictator or ruler can
overcome time. Overall, this sonnet paints a picture of an egotistical character
who thought himself without rival but who was cruel to his people.

Ozymandias is one of the most anthologized poems written by the

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is a sonnet, first published in The
Examiner in 1818. The next year, it got a place in Shelley’s collection Rosalind
and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems (1819).

The sonnet is about the ruins of a statue of Ozymandias. In antiquity,

Ozymandias was a Greek name for the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II,
who ruled from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE. It’s no surprise that the poem is named
after him.

Shelley’s poem was published under the pen name “Glirastes” on

January 11, 1818, in the weekly paper The Examiner. (Smith’s poem was
published in the same paper several weeks later). Shelley later republished the
poem in 1819 in his collection Rosalind and Helen. Although it didn’t receive
much attention when it was published, “Ozymandias” eventually became
Shelley’s most well-known work, and the phrase “look on my works, ye mighty,
and despair” is often referenced in popular culture

OZYMANDIAS

BY: PERCY BYSHHE SHELLEY

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

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.”

 SUMMARY:

In this poem, the speaker describes meeting a traveler “from an antique

land.” The title, ‘Ozymandias’, notifies the reader that this land is most
probably Egypt, since Ozymandias was what the Greeks called Ramses II, a
great and terrible pharaoh in ancient Egypt.

The traveler tells a story to the speaker. In the story, he describes

visiting Egypt and seeing a large and intimidating statue in the sand. He can tell
that the sculptor must have known his subject well because it is obvious from
the statues face that this man was a great leader, but one who could also be
very vicious: he describes his sneer as having a “cold command.”

Even though the leader was probably very great, it seems that the only
thing that survives from his realm is this statue, which is half buried and
somewhat falling apart.

ANALYSIS:

“Ozymandias” is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy

Bysshe Shelley. Shelley wrote “Ozymandias” in 1817 as part of a poetry contest
with a friend, and had it published in The Examiner in 1818 under the pen
name Glirastes.

The speaker of the poem once met a traveler from ‘an antique land’. So,
the traveller was from a place with an ancient history like Rome, Greece or
ancient Egypt. The traveller told him his story of the ruins of a giant statue that
he had come across.

So, it’s a story within a story, a narrative within a narrative. Some critics
opine that this framing has helped the poet add another level of obscurity to
Ozymandias’s position in people’s mind. It is suggestive of how pride and glory
of power fade away with time

The title of “Ozymandias” refers to an alternate name of the ancient

Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. In “Ozymandias,” Shelley describes a crumbling
statue of Ozymandias as a way to portray the transience of political power and
to praise art’s power of preserving the past. Although the poem is a 14-line
sonnet, it breaks from the typical sonnet tradition in both its form and rhyme
scheme, a tactic that reveals Shelley’s interest in challenging conventions, both
political and poetic.

‘Ozymandias’ is considered to be a Petrarchan sonnet, even though the

rhyme scheme varies slightly from the traditional form. As all sonnets are, this
poem contains fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter.

The rhyme scheme of ‘Ozymandias’ is ababacdcedefef. This rhyme

scheme differs from the rhyme scheme of a traditional Petrarchan sonnet,
whose octave (the first eight lines of the poem) usually has a rhyme scheme of
abbaabba; its sestet (the final six lines of the sonnet) does not have an
assigned rhyme scheme, but it usually rhymes every other line, or contains
three different rhymes.

Shelley’s defiance of this rhyme scheme helps to set apart ‘Ozymandias’

from other Petrarchan sonnets, and it is perhaps why this poem is so
memorable. The reason he did this may have been to represent the corruption
of authority.

Ozymandias as a Representative of Art and Culture: As this poem is

written about a ruined statue, it presents the perspective of a young traveler
who provides a detailed description of the scattered ruins of the statue. The
poem explores the fun of art and beauty in the natural world. The expression
of wonder starts from the first line and runs throughout the poem. However,
what stays in the minds of the readers is the impacts of the transience of life
and permanence of art.

The poem comprises emotions of a traveler, who imagines the story of

ruins of a statue in a desert. The traveler expresses that the statue was broken;
two legs were standing without a body and head was half sunk in the sand. He
also explains the expressions of the statue such as the “frown” and “sneer of
cold command,” which indicates that the sculptor has made the statue to
speak for itself.

The lifeless statue has the name, Ozymandias, the kings of kings, on its
pedestal. The name indicates the readers to look at the massive statue of the
mighty king, but the ruined state means that nothing remains after one’s
death, even if he is a king.

LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS

 The sonnet itself reads more like a story than a poem, although the line
rhymes do help to remind the reader that this is not prose. The speaker in the
poem, perhaps Percy Bysshe Shelley, tells the story from his point of view,
using the pronoun “I.” The first line reads, “I met a traveler from an antique
land…” At first, this line is a tad ambiguous: Is the traveler from an antique
land, or did he just come back from visiting one? The reader also does not
know where the speaker first met this sojourner.

The title indicates which land the traveler has visited: The Greeks called
Ramses II, a powerful Egyptian pharaoh, Ozymandias, so it is easy for the
reader to recognize the antique land as Egypt, one of the oldest civilizations in
the world. The lines that follow are much clearer than the first, however, and it
is clear to the reader what, exactly, is occurring in the sonnet.

The rest of the sonnet is actually written in dialogue; the traveler is

recounting his experiences in Egypt to the poem’s speaker. Lines two through
fourteen are only one sentence in length, as well. These lines also contain
some of the most vivid and beautiful imagery in all of poetry.

Shelley was such a masterful writer that it does not take much effort on
the part of the reader to clearly imagine the scene in this poem. In lines two
through five, the traveler describes a statue he sees in Egypt.

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—

The speaker of the poem once met a traveler from ‘an antique land’. So,
the traveller was from a place with an ancient history like Rome, Greece or
ancient Egypt. The traveller told him his story of the ruins of a giant statue that
he had come across.
 So, it’s a story within a story, a narrative within a narrative. Some critics
opine that this framing has helped the poet add another level of obscurity to
Ozymandias’s position in people’s mind. It is suggestive of how pride and glory
of power fade away with time.

“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies,

The traveller told the narrator that he saw two huge stone-legs of a
statue in the middle of a desert. ‘Trunkless’ suggests that the legs were
standing there without the upper body or the torso. The desert indicates that it
was ancient Egypt. Near the standing legs he also came across the broken head
(shattered visage) of the statue that was partially buried in the sand. Visage
means a face; but it implies a head here.

The shattered head denotes that the whole statue is destroyed. But we
don’t really know what exactly happened to that statue. It’s perhaps just the
natural process of decay with time.

…whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

The traveller goes on to describe that the face of the statue lying on the
sand had the expressions still visible and identifiable of the mighty ruler
Ozymandias. He has used ‘frown’, ‘wrinkled up’ and ‘sneer of cold command’
to give us an impression that the subject of the statue was an angry,
commanding and often upset man.

But the next line shifts the attention from the statue to the sculptor who
created it. The traveller admires that the artist understood and felt (read) his
subject’s (the man in the statue) passions and emotions very well. That is why
he could draw the face so perfectly that it is still visible.

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

The man continues his praise for the sculptor. The words ‘which yet
survive’ implies the immortality of a work of art that the artist created. His
creation is still alive (stamped) on the otherwise lifeless stones. The sculptor’s
hands copied and portrayed (mocked) his subject’s passions and his heart felt
those and inspired (fed) to make it possible. So, that hand and that heart ‘yet
survive’ through this masterful creation.

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Now, again the poem shifts to the statue. The traveller quotes the words
written on its pedestal. The inscription declares the name of the man. It’s
Ozymandias. He also regarded himself as the ‘King of Kings’. The ruler
addresses others who think themselves powerful (Mighty) to look at his works
to get their illusion shattered (despair). As you already know from the above
section that this was the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, the ‘works’
might indicate to the famous temples and statues he built.

Here Ozymandias is giving a warning to the other kings and rulers not to
hope for much greatness, as they can never cross his achievements. That
certainly gives an impression of his proud and commanding nature. But ironical
enough, his own statue is now grounded by the great force of nature.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

And here comes the final words from the traveller on how there is
nothing except those ruins and the sands all around. ‘The colossal Wreck’ hints
at how the gigantic statue and the high-flying passions attached to it are all
dusted now. The ‘boundless and bare’ and the ‘lone and level’ sands stretching
far away symbolizes the vastness of time.

We the human beings are very little creatures in the vast passage of
time. Our pride and might will eventually disappear. But what remains
immortal is the work of art. These last lines suggest the central theme of the
sonnet.
 “Ozymandias” Themes

One of Shelley’s most famous works, “Ozymandias” describes the ruins

of an ancient king’s statue in a foreign desert. All that remains of the statue are
two “vast” stone legs standing upright and a head half-buried in sand, along
with a boastful inscription describing the ruler as the “king of kings” whose
mighty achievements invoke awe and despair in all who behold them. The
inscription stands in ironic contrast to the decrepit reality of the statue,
however, underscoring the ultimate transience of political power. The poem
critiques such power through its suggestion that both great rulers and their
kingdoms will fall to the sands of time.
 In the poem, the speaker relates a story a traveler told him about the
ruins of a “colossal wreck” of a sculpture whose decaying physical state mirrors
the dissolution of its subject’s—Ozymandias’s—power. Only two upright legs, a
face, and a pedestal remain of Ozymandias’s original statue, and even these
individual parts of the statue are not in great shape: the face, for instance, is
“shattered.” Clearly, time hasn’t been kind to this statue, whose pitiful state
undercuts the bold assertion of its inscription. The fact that even this “king of
kings” lies decaying in a distant desert suggests that no amount of power can
withstand the merciless and unceasing passage of time.

The speaker goes on to explain that time not only destroyed this statue,
it also essentially erased the entire kingdom the statue was built to overlook.
The speaker immediately follows the king’s declaration found on the pedestal
of the statue—“Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”—with the line
“Nothing beside remains.” Such a savage contradiction makes the king’s
prideful dare almost comically naïve. Ozymandias had believed that while he
himself would die, he would leave a lasting and intimidating legacy through
everything he built. Yet his words are ultimately empty, as everything he built
has crumbled. The people and places he ruled over are gone, leaving only an
abandoned desert whose “lone and level sands” imply that not even a trace of
the kingdom’s former glory can be discerned. The pedestal’s claim that
onlookers should despair at Ozymandias’s works thus takes on a new and
ironic meaning: one despairs not at Ozymandias’s power, but at how
powerless time and decay make everyone.

The speaker also uses the specific example of Ozymandias to make a

broader pronouncement about the ephemeral nature of power and, in turn, to
implicitly critique tyranny. The speaker evokes the image of a cruel leader;
Ozymandias wears a “frown” along with the “sneer of cold command.” That
such “passions” are now recorded only on “lifeless things” (i.e., the statue) is a
clear rebuke of such a ruler, and suggests that the speaker believes such
tyranny now only exists on the face of a dead and crumbling piece of stone.

The poem’s depiction of the destruction of Ozymandias and his tyranny

isn’t entirely fictional: Ozymandias is the Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh
Ramses II, who dramatically expanded Egypt’s empire and who had several
statues of himself built throughout Egypt. In fact, the Ancient Greek writer
Diodorus Siculus reported the following inscription on the base of one of
Ozymandias’s statues: “King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. If anyone would know
how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.” By alluding
to an actual ancient empire, and an actual king, the poem reminds readers that
history is full of the rises and falls of empires. No power is permanent,
regardless of how omnipotent a ruler believes himself to be. Even the “king
of kings” may one day be a forgotten relic of an “antique land.”

The Power of Nature

Like many of the romantic poets, especially William Wordsworth, Shelley

demonstrates a great reverence for the beauty of nature, and he feels closely
connected to nature’s power. In his early poetry, Shelley shares the romantic
interest in pantheism—the belief that God, or a divine, unifying spirit, runs
through everything in the universe. He refers to this unifying natural force in
many poems, describing it as the “spirit of beauty” in “Hymn to Intellectual
Beauty” and identifying it with Mont Blanc and the Arve River in “Mont Blanc.”
This force is the cause of all human joy, faith, goodness, and pleasure, and it is
also the source of poetic inspiration and divine truth. Shelley asserts several
times that this force can influence people to change the world for the better.
However, Shelley simultaneously recognizes that nature’s power is not wholly
positive. Nature destroys as often as it inspires or creates, and it destroys
cruelly and indiscriminately. For this reason, Shelley’s delight in nature is
mitigated by an awareness of its dark side.

The Power of the Human Mind

Shelley uses nature as his primary source of poetic inspiration. In such

poems as “The Mask of Anarchy Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at
Manchester” (1819) and “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley suggests that the
natural world holds a sublime power over his imagination. This power seems to
come from a stranger, more mystical place than simply his appreciation for
nature’s beauty or grandeur. At the same time, although nature has creative
power over Shelley because it provides inspiration, he feels that his
imagination has creative power over nature. It is the imagination—or our
ability to form sensory perceptions—that allows us to describe nature in
different, original ways, which help to shape how nature appears and,
therefore, how it exists. Thus, the power of the human mind becomes equal to
the power of nature, and the experience of beauty in the natural world
becomes a kind of collaboration between the perceiver and the perceived.
Because Shelley cannot be sure that the sublime powers he senses in nature
are only the result of his gifted imagination, he finds it difficult to attribute
nature’s power to God: the human role in shaping nature damages Shelley’s
ability to believe that nature’s beauty comes solely from a divine source.

Symbols
Mont Blanc

For Shelley, Mont Blanc—the highest peak in the Alps—represents the eternal
power of nature. Mont Blanc has existed forever, and it will last forever, an
idea he explores in “Mont Blanc.” The mountain fills the poet with inspiration,
but its coldness and inaccessibility are terrifying. Ultimately, though, Shelley
wonders if the mountain’s power might be meaningless, an invention of the
more powerful human imagination.

The West Wind

Shelley uses the West Wind to symbolize the power of nature and of the
imagination inspired by nature. Unlike Mont Blanc, however, the West Wind is
active and dynamic in poems, such as “Ode to the West Wind.” While Mont
Blanc is immobile, the West Wind is an agent for change. Even as it destroys,
the wind encourages new life on earth and social progress among humanity.

The Statue of Ozymandias

In Shelley’s work, the statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, or
Ozymandias, symbolizes political tyranny. In “Ozymandias,” (1817) the statue is
broken into pieces and stranded in an empty desert, which suggests that
tyranny is temporary and also that no political leader, particularly an unjust
one, can hope to have lasting power or real influence. The broken monument
also represents the decay of civilization and culture: the statue is, after all, a
human construction, a piece of art made by a creator, and now it—and its
creator—have been destroyed, as all living things are eventually destroyed.
Analysis of Literary Devices in “Ozymandias”
Literary devices work as tools for writers to use to enrich their texts. With the
help of literary devices, the writers directly or indirectly project their main
ideas. Their use brings richness and clarity to the texts. Shelley also reveals his
artistic skill in this poem using various literary devices.

1) Metaphor: There is one extended metaphor used in the poem. The

statue of Ozymandias metaphorically represents power, legacy, and
command. It clarifies the meanings of the object and makes it clear that
once the king was mighty and all-powerful. It also shows that the sand
has eroded the actual shape of the statue, representing the destructive
power of time.

2) Personification: Shelley has used personification that means to use

human emotions for inanimate objects. He has used personification
twice in the poem. The fifth line “And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold
command,” refers to the broken head of the statue. However, the
lifeless statue Ozymandias is referred to as a real person. The second
example is in the sixth line of the poem where “Tell that its sculptor well
those passions read” shows as if the statue is commanding the sculptor
how to carve or express his emotions.
3) Imagery: Imagery is used to make the reader feel things through five
senses. The poet has used images involving a sense of sights such as two
vast and trunk-less legs, shattered face, wrinkled lip and desert. These
images help readers visualize the status of the broken statue.

4) Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds

in the same lines of the poetry such as the use of /c/ in “cold command”,
the sound of /b/ in “boundless and bear” and the sound of /l/ in “lone
and level.

5) Enjambment: The term enjambment refers to lines that end without

any punctuation marks. Shelley has used enjambments in the second
and sixth line of the poem where it is stated, “Who said—“Two vast and
trunkless legs of stone” and “Tell that its sculptor well those passions
read”.
6) ) Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of the vowel sounds in the
same line such as the sounds of /a/ in “stand and sand” and sound of /e/
in “well and read.”
7)
8) 7) Irony: Irony is a figure of speech used to present the opposite
meanings of the words. Ozymandias’s description presents him as a
mighty, great and fierce king but in reality, there is nothing but a broken,
lifeless statue.
9)
10) 8) Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant
sounds such as /s/ in “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown”.
11) Rhyme Scheme: The whole poem follows ABBAABBACDCDCD. It is
different from the traditional rhyme scheme. Shelley has used the
mixture of an octet and Shakespearian rhyme scheme. The purpose of
this rhymes scheme is to show the progress of time. As the poem
progresses, the old pattern of rhyme is replaced with the new pattern
which makes the poem unique in its structure.
12)
13) 3) Meter: There is no specific meter throughout the poem.
Although the poem is written in iambic pentameter in which unstressed
syllable is followed by a stressed syllable, as it is stated, “half-sunk, a
shatt-er’d vis-age lies.” However, by the end, Shelley has used trochee
which means the line begins with a stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed syllable.
14) The analysis shows that this poem, though, seems a simple
description of a statue, deceptively points to the dark reality that power
corrupts humans. The statue, even after its ruination, displays harsh
expressions to show that the king was not benevolent during his regime.
15)
16) The ruins point out that nothing in the world is permanent.
17) Concluding the literary devices, it can be stated that on the one
hand, these literary devices have provided uniqueness to the text, and
on the other, they have opened up new vistas for interpretations.
Moreover, Shelley has explored many contemporary issues under these
literary devices.
The poem Ozymandias is about the transitory nature of life. It asserts
that all that we gain in life—wealth, fame and power—are all temporary
and are at the mercy of greater forces. It also highlights the irony of King
Ozymandias’ arrogance. He once took great pride in his power, but
today his statue is reduced to rubble. It finally states that no matter how
powerful one is, there are powers beyond one’s realm of control that
one cannot compete with.
The moral we could take from this poem is that we should live in such a
way that we will be remembered fondly as one who benefited others.
This king wanted to be remembered as one who brought fear and dread
to others. He is a negative example, and we should want to be
remembered in the opposite way.
Nothing is stable in this world; everything is subject to change and
decay. The poem conveys the transient state of human life. Rich or poor
mighty or weak everyone has to leave this world. Time does not spare
even the ‘king of kings’. The statues carved in stone marble etc. do
remind the world about them but with the passage of time these statues
also get shattered and the world gradually forgets them.