Frame Ozymandias

Allusion
Personification
Revolutionary……to the skylark…odeto the west wind
Symbolism..
The cloud ..natural beauty and joy,,mother of earth , nurse. Of plants
Skylark piwer of nature
West wind- minute observation of nature and object.. power of wind
Against church – queen map – against imoralitiese in commerece,monarchy etc.
Prometheus unbound- verse dram drama, Greek mythological figure. Defies god to provide fire to
humans had to receive eternal opunishment form Zeus
Mans progress against the evil forces of nature
Symbol of knoelege and intelligence
quotes
Poetry id the record of the best and the happbest iest moments of the happiest and
Threee shelly keats Byron
Alsto.
Denied rituals , glorification and scientific treatment of nature…ideal love
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Published in the examiner
Published under pseudonym
Horace smith… they took a passage from biblioteca historica..republished by adding a sonnet
The skill of the artist is emphasized more.
Arrogant nature.
Monologue
Conversation to the poet.
Prescript of travelogue
Art vs life.
As a romantic poem.
Man vs nature..
Diction lyrical poet –there is no lyrical quality- hard sounding words- trunkless,shattered, pesdstrial
Ozymandias etc shows monarchial power.
Warning to leaders of his time- they will fall

Political sonnet in England in 1819
Narssict
OZYMANDIAS
Percy Bysshe Shelly
Percy Bysshe Shelly was an English Romantic poet. He is widely known as one of the best philosophical and lyrical poets in
the English language. Shelly was also among the many poets and writers who could not see fame and recognition in his
lifetime. After his death, he gained recognition for his social views and radical poetry. He later became an important
member of a close circle of the visionary writers and poets that include John Keats, Leigh Hunt, Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt,
Mary Shelly, and Thomas Love Peacock.
Shelley has written one of the best classical poems that include “Ode to the West Wind,” “Ozymandias,” “When Soft Voice
Die,” “The Masque of Anarchy,” “The Cloud,” and “Music.” He also wrote a ground breaking drama, The Cenci in 1819, long
philosophical and visionary work Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, The Revolt of Islam, and Hellas, A Lyrical Drama. His
social and political thoughts had led to various movements in England, like the Chartist Movement. His economic theories
and morality theories had influenced a larger number of people, including Karl Marx. His writings on nonviolent resistance
greatly influenced American writer Leo Tolstoy. The writing of Leo Tolstoy in return influenced Mahatma Gandhi, and then
Martin Luther King Jr.
The romantic era is known for its artistic, musical, literary, and intellectual movements that started in Europe at the end of
the 18th century. The poetry of the romantic era is the reaction against the prevailing ideas of Enlightenment. Romantic
poetry is a product of sentiments, emotions, and feelings. Percy Bysshe Shelly is one of the leading romantic poets.
The poetic style of Shelley resembles the style of Romantic poets. To very extend, Shelly has imitated the style of William
Wordsworth. Shelly employed powerful imagery and symbolism in his poetry. His imagery is most often visual. He also
employed similes and metaphors in abundance. For example, in the poem “To the Skylark,” he employed a series of
similes, marvelous similes.
The diction employed by Shelly is tactile and lush. However, he never used ornamental words. Every word is placed in a
suitable place, and it carries its significance. By the use of extraordinary diction, Shelly expressed his versatile feelings. The
note of music employed by Shelley is very appealing to the listeners. Shelley employed the meter of terza rima in his poem
“Ode to the West Wind.” This meter is used in its finest way in the poem.
Elements of imagination, nature, supernaturalism, melancholy, beauty, Hellenism, lyricism, subjectivity, idealism, and many
more are found in the poetry of Shelley. The following are the distinguishing features of the poetry of Shelley.
He did not like war. Was a vegan. He was one among the second generation of romantic poets who used themes like
foreign lands, antiquity, religion,political control, to set themselves apart from apart from the older generation of Romantic
poets
LYRICISM
The reading of Shelley’s poem is proof of why he is considered as one of the utmost geniuses of lyrical poetry in the English
Language. The poems of Shelly are known for their intensity of emotions and feelings, momentarily and passionate
impulses, and spontaneity. His lyrics appear to be composed effortlessly. His lyrics are melodious and sweet as the song of
the skylark. The peaceful, smooth, and graceful spontaneity in Shelley’s poetry can be illustrated in the following lines from
his poem “To a Skylark.”
“Teach me half the gladness.
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow.
The world should listen to thee-as! am listening
now.”
The lyricism of Shelly was unique. According to Charles Morgan, the unique instrument of Shelly was his lyricism. Even
Shakespeare cannot parallel Shelly in lyrical qualities. Shelley has not written his lyrics; instead, they have been burst from
the sunshine, the windbreak, and the air. His lyrics give a sense of penetrating rupture to its listener. In reality, this sense is
given by love and Nature but never by any device like poetry.
The careful choice of words that Shelley employed in his writing also adds to the musicality of his poetry. The rhythm and
musicality of his poetry are smooth, impulsive, solemn, and joyous. It is employed according to the nature of emotions
expressed in the poetry. For example, in the “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelly’s lyrics appear to be in perfect harmony with
the smooth, stormy march of the wind:
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed”
His poem “To a Skylark ” appears not to be his poem, but a song of Skylark translated in stanzas. Certainly, the first four
lines of the stanza correspond to the increase of the song of the bird. In the poem “The Cloud,” the rhythm that Shelley
creates reflects the movement of the clouds rushing across the sky. Shelly wonderfully blends the sense and versification.
This blending is the utmost musical quality of Shelly’s poetry.
The greatest skill Shelley has is his lyricism. He is even regarded as the prince of English lyricism. With his involuntary art,
personal appeal, musical beauty, and spontaneity makes his lyrics unsurpassable and touches the heart of the listeners.
NOTE OF LONGING/YEARNING
In the poetry of Shelly, there is a thoughtful note of longing or yearning for the unreachable and unattainable desires. In his
poetry, Shelly appears to be haunted by the Eternal Mind. He constantly chases the impalpable and invisible things and
attempts to look beyond the wretchedness of life. In his poem “To—,” he writes about the desire of a moth for star (light),
the desire of the night for the morning, the desire to devote something that is far away from the world for sorrow.
Shelley also assigned various names to this unattainable thing in the poem. Similarly, in the poem, “Hymn To Intellectual
Beauty,” he describes this unattainable thing as a spirit of beauty. He calls it “unseen power” that resides in the hearts of
humans. It resides in the form of “awful Loveliness” that can help to liberate the world from oppression and tyranny.
Skylark is Shelly’s poetic bird. It is not merely a bird, but he employed the symbol of the bird as an embodiment of his
ideals though Shelley can hear it but cannot see it. Canadian comments on the tone of Shelley’s poetry show that it shows
keen aspiration and is filled with the spiritual ruptures, and anguished pangs. Moreover, it also surpasses the suffering and
joys of ordinary humans.
IDEALISM IS SHELLEY’S POETRY
The poetry of Shelley is characterized by the striking note of idealism. Idealism, in his poetry, is stimulated from the
enthusiasm of reform. In his poetry, he appears to have a prophetic voice because of employing idealism. In his poetry, he
asserts that this desolate and imperfect world must be transformed into the land of love, blessing, freedom, and complete
joy. He enthusiastically expresses his belief that one day, his poetry would transform the world.
His poetry is filled with the note and feeling of escapism. It is this quality escapism that makes him unmistaken romantic.
He is urged by his pensive urgency to fly away from this world full of miseries and hatred to the place where the miseries
and pains of this world will not haunt him. In his poem, “To the Skylark,” He praises the ability of the Skylark for scorning
the ground and desires that he could also fly to heaven. Similarly, in “Ode to the West Wind,” he asks the west wind to
uplift him from the “thorns of life.”
PLATONISM OR HELLENISM
Shelley is greatly influenced by ancient Greece and has a deep interest in its imagery. His poetry is evidence for his
eagerness for the wisdom of the philosopher of Greece. Shelley appears to be greatly influenced by Plato.
Like Plato, Shelley treats human life and natural objects and poor copy of an ideal form in his poetry. This makes Shelley
appreciate natural objects with sharper insight. He also exercises the theory that poets and artists must unveil the worldly
cover from the natural objects and reveal the underlying ideal model.
The concepts of Platonism appeals to Shelly because it provides him with the guiding principles underlying the ideal forms.
He starts following Platonism since he begins to write poetry, and when he starts to define the “unseen power” underlying
the ideal forms of natural objects. In his later poetry, the notion of guiding power appears in the diverse form with the
strong characteristic of pantheism. Shelley elaborates on his Platonism in his poem Adonais. He writes:
“The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven’s light for ever shines, Earth’s shadows fly,
Life like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments.”
Critics describe this stanza as the finest concise expression of Platonism in the poetry of the English language. In his
concepts of nature, Shelly often turns into pantheism. He starts believing that nature manifests only one soul and that is
indivisible. When the earthly existence ends, everything reunites with its soul. For example, in Adonais, Shelley describes
the afterlife of Keats as a portion of loveliness that he once made more attractive. He also says that once the spirit from the
dull and dense world sweeps, it moves to the other world with “All new successions to the forms they wear.”
Shelley also borrowed the ideas of love from Plato. Shelley, like Plato, sees love as a principle that rules over all things by
extending through nature. It rules over both human and divine things. In the poem Adonais, Shelley describes love as the
everlasting love which is like as web that is woven blindly by the man, earth, beast, sear and air.
Like Plato, the notion of love for Shelly is not concerned with sexual passion. In the poem “One Word is Too Often
Profaned,” he distinguishes his notion of love from the ordinary notion of love as:
“I can give not what men call love.”
VAGUENESS
Mathew Arnold criticizes Shelley’s poetry for its unsustainability. Arnold’s criticism is based on the same facts. The poetry
of Shelley appears to be vague. Since Childhood, Shelley had been preoccupied with the visions. For example, in the poem
“Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” Shelley refers to the time of his boyhood when he would look at ghosts in a listening
chamber, ruin, and cave.
He was never freed from visions in any part of his life. Shelley could not express his visions in the worldly images. So, Shelly
flies higher and higher into finding symbols in the ethereal world to express his visions. The poetry that he composed in the
ethereal world appears to be vague to the people of ordinary understanding. We are familiar with his Skylark, Cloud, and
West Wind. However, in the poetry of Shelly, they have become the ethereal character and vague to be understood
comprehensively. It is difficult to appreciate the poetry of Shelley without attaining his heights.
MELANCHOLY AND OPTIMISM IN SHELLEY’S POEMS
In Shelley’s poetry, optimism and pessimism go parallel in the entire poetry. Whenever Shelley is expressing corruption,
tyranny, and personal sufferings, his tone becomes extremely pessimistic. His poems “Stanza Written in Dejection,” “O
Life!,” “O World!,” and “O Time!” are an illustration of his personal despondency and despair. For example in the poem
“The Indian Serenade,” he writes
“O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I Fail!”
In the line, Shelley’s cry of suffering arises from unaffected frustration and private anguishes.
Similarly, in the poem Adonais, Shelley describes himself as:
“He came the last, neglected and apart:
A herd-abandoned deer, struck by the hunter’s dart.”

In the poetry of Shelley, melancholy is dominant. However, Shelley also appears to be highly optimistic about the future of
the world. He strongly believes that golden time is approaching that will ensure happiness. This happiness will replace all
the tyranny, corruption, and slavery prevailing at this time. whatever, Sheley talks about the future in his poetry, he
appears to be ecstatic with joy. His prophecy in “Ode to the West Wind” is the most optimistic line in his entire poetry. He
ends the poem with the lines by addressing the west wind to drive him through the death thoughts that are prevailing in
the universe; to sweep away him like the weathered leave to speed up the rebirth; and by the effect of his poetry provoke
the dead hearts. Moreover, he says to the west wind to scatter the sparks and ashes from the unextinguished hearth; and
through his words awaken the sleeping world. He calls the west wind as the trumpet of a prophecy and asks that is the
rebirth (spring) far behind as winter has already come.
Shelley’s poetry is distinguished with this unique characteristic of combining optimism and pessimism.
NATURE
Shelley, like other Romantic poets, was a passionate lover of nature. For Shelley, nature is one spirit and the Supreme
Power that works through all objects. In most of his poems, he celebrates nature. The main theme of most of the poems is
nature. For example, his poems “To a Skylark,” “The Cloud,” “Ode to the West Wind,” “To the Moon,” and “A Dream of the
Unknown” is based on nature.
He treats nature by describing things the way they appear in nature. He provides color to those objects and gives them
human qualities through personification. For example, in his poem “Ode to the West Wind,” he personifies the west wind.
He personifies the object to make it feel that they are capable of doing all those humanly work.
He also believes in the healing power of nature, which makes him a mythopoeic poet. One of the most attractive elements
in Shelly’s poetry is his treatment of nature. Whatever Shelley writes, he takes inspiration from nature. He develops his
new ideas from the forces and objects of nature. Though he takes ideas from nature, what makes these ideas attractive is
the legendary treatment of these ideas, which only possible with Shelley. He does not only make inanimate objects lively
by making them appear like a human. Shelly, through his poetry, shows love and a deep understanding of nature.
IMAGINATION
According to Shelley, poetry is the expression of imagination. He highly believes in the power of imagination as it brings
diverse objects in harmony with each other. For Shelley, the function of imagination is to create shapes through which
reality can be expressed to the world.
Lofty imagination and uncontrolled passion are the major qualities in Shelley’s poetry. His power of imagination and
passion are present simultaneously in his poetry and finds a moving expression. He explores the world with his careful
imagination. In his poetry, he brings together associations and impressions that indicate his ideals and aspirations. He puts
his imagination in various colors that make his poetry sensuous and symbolic.
SUPERNATURALISM IN SHELLEY’S WORKS
Like other romantic poets, Shelley also employed supernatural elements in his poetry. He employed the images of ghosts
and spirits in his poetry that indicates the possibility of another world other than ours. For example, in the poem “Hymn to
Intellectual Beauty,” the speaker of the poem looks for the ghost and explains the presence of a ghost in another world
besides the world of humans. Similarly, in the poem “Mont Blanc,” the speaker encounters shadows and ghosts of the real
objects in the Cave of Poesy.
In both poems, the ghosts are not something real. It emphasizes on the mystery and elusiveness of the supernatural forces.
BEAUTY
Another major element of Shelly’s poetry is beautiful. The notion of Beauty for Shelly is ideal. He calls the Beauty of nature
as an “Intellectual beauty.” In his poems, he rejoices Beauty as a mysterious power. In his poem “Hymn to Intellectual
Beauty,” he asserts that if “Intellectual Beauty ” is no longer present in this world, the world will become desolate and
vacant within a vast vale of tears.
To conclude, the distinguishing qualities such as lyricism, the personification of inanimate objects, Platonism, and many
other characteristics make P.B. Shelley is one of the renowned poets his age and of coming generations.
Percy Shelley: Poems Summary
“Mutability” (1814)
A first-person poetic persona compares people to restless clouds. Clouds speed brightly across the sky but disappear at
night, presumably like a human life. The persona then compares people to lyres, stringed instruments, that are always
playing different tunes based on different experiences. The persona then complains that whether we are asleep or awake,
a bad dream or a “wandering thought” interferes with our happiness. Whatever we think, however we feel, “It is the
same,” meaning that all will pass away and people will change. Thus, the one thing that endures is “Mutability.”
“Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” (1816)
In seven stanzas, a first-person poetic persona turns inward to appreciate the power of knowledge and wonders how to
recapture it. In the first stanza, he describes the spirit of natural beauty with awe; it is a power that can hardly be grasped.
He addresses that spirit in the second stanza; it seems to be gone, leaving humans in gloom. People have tried to name it,
but they have made it something supernatural, like a ghost; instead of superstition, people should focus on the graceful
light of reality and truth. In the fourth stanza, knowledge appears to be more enduring than emotions such as love; it lights
up the heart.
The persona then recalls his youth, when he used to seek passing or imaginary things like “ghosts” and love, but then the
deep shadow of nature’s reality fell upon him, and he felt the ecstasy of the possibility of intellectual knowledge. He vowed
to dedicate his powers to knowledge and study. He also has always hoped that knowledge “wouldst free / This world from
its dark slavery” to superstition. In the final stanza, he adds that he has worshiped knowledge of nature, which provides
calm love and conquers fear.
“Mont Blanc’ (1816)
In five stanzas, a first-person poetic persona addresses the mountain in its sublime majesty. In the first stanza, he considers
“the everlasting universe of things” that he infers from observing nature. Human thought in comparison is feeble, gaining
its splendor from the natural world that it thinks about. The second stanza focuses on the mountain itself, with its crags,
trees, and ice, but together something huge and sublime; it is dizzying, too big even for independent thought to capture it.
The feeling that he cannot comprehend it all continues; as he works to take it all in, the serene mountain awaits, unmoved.
He is tempted to resort to mythology but realizes that nature is too strong for that, for merely human things. The wise see
nature’s reality. In the fourth stanza, he expands past the mountain to more of the natural world, which persists long past
any human life; we do not have access to that raw immortality. Nature’s power, or the mountain’s, is like an unstoppable
glacier. In the last stanza, he turns his eyes back to the mountain’s features, finally concluding that the spirit of nature is in
the mountain, which finally teaches him that knowing such things fills his mind with a welcome, silent solitude.
“Ozymandias” (1817)
The persona states that he met a traveler who had seen a vast but ruined statue; only the legs remained standing. The
statue's pedestal told onlookers that they should despair at the King’s great works, but the whole area has been reduced to
sand.
“The Mask of Anarchy” (1819)
The poet has learned of the massacre at Manchester, characterized by anarchic murder rather than a true spirit of
revolution. He personifies Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy, various Destructions, and Anarchy. Anarchy leads armed forces
through England, scaring the population. Anarchy claims to be God, King, and Law, rejecting all traditional sources of
authority and power. Some choose to follow him. As his forces proceed with their destruction, even Hope cries out in
despair. Finally, however, a mist of hope emerges, carrying thoughts. This revives Hope and kills Anarchy. The land of
England seems to speak to the English, asking them to rise and retake true freedom, since they really had been oppressed.
Instead of trading “blood for blood” and “wrong for wrong,” the people should finally turn back to justice, wisdom, peace,
and love in order to achieve liberty. They should be guided by “Science, Poetry, and Thought” and quiet virtues. The true
revolution should be “measured” and use words instead of swords, drawing on the “old laws of England” instead of the
new laws of the oppressors. When the tyrants fight back, the people should let their anger show itself until the tyrants fall
back in shame. The people will then “Rise like Lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number” to reform England.
“England in 1819” (1819)
This sonnet provides a kind of journalistic report on the state of England in 1819. King George III was “old, mad, blind,
despised, and dying,” with his son ruling England because George III was unable to do so. The people are “starved and
stabbed,” while the army and the laws simultaneously exert power and hurt the people. The Christian leaders are
“Christless.” Yet, maybe some new, calm light will arise from the best of old England.
"Song to the Men of England"

Once again, the poet takes eight stanzas to call upon the people on England to understand and do something about their
state of oppression. People plow for the sake of the lords, who are like drone bees that do no work but live off of the work
of others. The people of England are doing the real work—but, the poet asks, are they gaining any benefit from this
system? They are not enjoying the fruits of their labor, and the tyrants are taking their wealth and very lives without giving
them the recompense they deserve. The call is to sow their own seed, weave their own robes, and forge their own arms in
their own defense. Otherwise, the people are merely digging their own graves.
“Ode to the West Wind” (1819)
A first-person persona addresses the west wind in five stanzas. It is strong and fearsome. In the first stanza, the wind blows
the leaves of autumn. In the second stanza, the wind blows the clouds in the sky. In the third stanza, the wind blows across
an island and the waves of the sea. In the fourth stanza, the persona imagines being the leaf, cloud, or wave, sharing in the
wind’s strength. He desires to be lifted up rather than caught low on “the thorns of life,” for he sees himself as like the
wind: “tameless, and swift, and proud.” In the final stanza, he asks the wind to play upon him like a lyre; he wants to share
the wind’s fierce spirit. In turn, he would have the power to spread his verse throughout the world, reawakening it.
“The Indian Serenade” (1819)
In 24 lines, Shelley takes on the poetic form of the extravagant Oriental love poem. The first-person persona has been
dreaming of her (or his) beloved. She awakens and follows her feet to her beloved’s window. She feels like a nightingale
with a song to sing. She feels herself faint in the grass, calling out for her beloved to pull her up into his embrace.
“To a Skylark” (1820)
The persona extols the virtues of the skylark, a bird that soars and sings high in the air. It flies too high to see, but it can be
heard, making it like a spirit, or a maiden in a tower, or a glow-worm hidden in the grass, or the scent of a rose. The
skylark’s song is better than the sound of rain and better than human poetry. What is the subject of the bird’s song, so free
of the pains of love? Perhaps it sings because it knows that the alternative is death. The bird does not have the same
longings and cares that interfere with human happiness. Yet, it is these things that help us appreciate the pure beauty of
the birdsong; perhaps the skylark’s song could become the persona’s muse.
“Adonais” (1821)
Shelley wrote this long poem as an elegy for Shelley’s close friend and fellow poet John Keats, who died in Rome of
tuberculosis at the age of 26. The mood of the poem begins in dejection, but ends in optimism—hoping Keats’ spark of
brilliance reverberates through the generations of future poets and inspires revolutionary change throughout Europe.
Adonis is the stand-in for Keats, for he too died at a young age after being mauled by a boar. In Shelley’s version, the
“beast” responsible for Keats’s death is the literary critic, specifically one from London’s Quarterly who gave a scathing
review of Keats’ poem “Endymion” (Shelley was unaware of the true cause of Keats’s death). Urania (also known as
“Venus” or “Aphrodite”), who is Adonis’ lover in the myth, is rewritten here as the young man’s mother (possibly because
Keats had no lover at the time of his death). In a sense, Keats is not dead, for like other great poets, he lives within those
who benefited from his life and poetry, and he is alive because he is “one with Nature.” He is even Christlike, a divinity
among the best of poets. Even so, he died too soon. In death, he beacons the living to join him in eternity.
“A Dirge” (1822)
Themes of isolation, loneliness, and death characterize this eight-line poem. The wind moans in grief beyond words; the
storm rains in vain; the trees are bare and straining under their own weight. The world is all caves and gloom, all wrong!
THEMES
The Power of Nature
Shelley discusses the power of both seen and unseen nature throughout his entire canon. This is primarily how critics have
come to classify the bard as a "Romantic." Due to Shelley's fervid defense of a godless universe, he often turned to the
sheer majestic power of the natural world. In the place of religious doctrine he wanted substantiated evidence of reality.
Related Poems:
• "Mutability"
• "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"
• "Mont Blanc"
• "Ozymandias"
• "Ode to the West Wind"
• "To a Skylark"
• "Adonais"
Atheism
The theme of a godless universe cannot be separated from Shelley’s continuous reference to the inspiration he received
from Nature. As with his Romantic contemporary poets (of both of the first two generations), Shelley maintained a
philosophy that looked to the unfolding of our universe as a natural progress of time. Because of Shelley’s early convictions
and his expulsion as a result of his inexorable atheistic views, he learned how unpopular atheism was in his society. As he
matured, he became much better job at hiding his religious doubt and masking it in references to mythologies, biblical
absurdity, and the comfort of self-admitted ignorance of the world’s greatest mysteries.
Related Poems:
• "Mutability"
• "Mont Blanc"
• "The Mask of Anarchy"
• "England in 1819"
• "The Indian Serenade"
• "To a Skylark"
• "Adonais"
• "A Dirge"
Oppression/Injustice/Tyranny/Power
Although Shelley expresses it in many different ways, the idea of a majority being unjustly ruled by an oppressive few (with
sometimes the few being unjustly persecuted by the many) is perhaps the most common theme in Shelley’s work. If there
is one element of social theory to take from Shelley's poetry, it should be his determination to inspire the oppressed
classes to engage in revolution against the tyranny of wicked institutions (the royal court, legal courts, other government
systems, and churches). The upheaval in France during his lifetime, with the motions of the French Revolution fresh in the
minds of many in Europe, was a strong influence on him (see, for example, his political pamphlet asserting a "Declaration
of Rights").
Atheism is one example of this frequent theme. Yet, beyond his outcry against the oppressive elements of religion, Shelley
saw himself as a radical voice for the people of his time in the broad fight against unjust governments and laws.
Social tyranny, however, involved personal injustices directed at Shelley. He was never able to come to terms with society's
rejection of his unconventionality, especially in his romantic life. Although he was standing up against the wickedness of
authority in the name of free people, he was outcast by the very people he sought to encourage, for they disapproved of
his unconventional lifestyle in love and marriage in addition to his personal godlessness.
Related Poems:
• "Ozymandias"
• "Song to the Men of England"

• "To a Skylark"
• "Adonais"
Revolution/Mutation/Change/Cycle
Given Shelley's general discontent, it is no surprise to see Shelley frequently considering the theme of “change.” In Shelley
and Byron’s own beliefs, this is what separated them from their first-generation Romantic counterparts. While Blake,
Wordsworth, and Coleridge merely worked to define and express the injustices of various powers in the years leading up to
(and then during) the French Revolution, Shelley and Byron took more of a call-to-arms approach. Shelley was never
content with just discussing the issues of state tyranny. Living by example and principle, even if it meant expulsion from
Oxford, exile from London society, and being disowned by his family, like it or not, Shelley used his poetry to dare his
readers to act upon the ideas he was promoting. Philosophically, recognizing that nothing in this world, whether natural or
manmade, is constant, Shelley believed in a cyclical nature of our universe and of humanity and argued that man had the
right and duty to live actively. Shelley was always on the move.
Related Poems:
• "Mutability"
• "Mont Blanc"
• "Ozymandias"
Inspiration
Shelley never stopped believing in the changes that could end all oppression in this world (in the Western world in
particular). Wearing a bracelet inscribed with the verse of Milton, “il buon tempo verrà”—(“the good time will come”),,
Shelley held firm to the conviction that the turn of the nineteenth century had been a pivotal point in the way human
beings interacted with one another. Without doubt, there are examples of Shelley's times of pessimism and cynicism about
the contemporary state of affairs. Yet, behind all of the skepticism and scorn lies a determined voice, full of hope, believing
that people will eventually gather to overthrow various kinds of despotism.
Related Poems:
• "Mutability"
• "To a Skylark"
• "Adonais"
Narcissism/Vanity/Self
Richard Holmes’ biography, Shelley: The Pursuit, strongly suggests that as motivated as Shelley was to inspire social and
political change and overcome oppression, the changes he advocated hardly went beyond changes that would benefit
himself.
Arguments can be made for either side of the coin: On the one hand, Shelley can be viewed as a selfish and adulterous
lover, an absentee father, and a disloyal countryman. On the other hand, he is a bard devoted to altruistic goals and
especially freedom--calling upon a revolutionary voice much greater than his own--and a radical willing to sacrifice his own
reputation for the betterment of mankind. Upon Shelley's death, Byron, in reply to a somewhat unkind elegy on Shelley by
John Murray, wrote: “You are brutally mistaken about Shelley, who was without exception, the best and least selfish man I
ever knew. I never knew one who was not a beast in comparison.”
The ambiguity is hard to escape in Shelley's poetry. Is he, as speaker, a metaphor for the voice of everyman? Or does
Shelley see himself as a superior being, primarily pompous and condescending with his vigilante tone?
Poems to Consider:
• "The Indian Serenade"
• "A Dirge"
Immortality vs. Mortality
Shelley did not really challenge the apparently scientific proof of mortality, but he did struggle with the notion of death in
spirit. Death, represented often through water and reference to Greek mythology in his works, is a common occurrence in
Shelley's canon. He is often found questioning both the future of the Romantic voice and the immortality of other voices
(Plato, Milton, Dante, Greek and Roman myths, and so on).
Related Poems:
• "Mutability"
• "Mont Blanc"
• "Ozymandias"
• "Adonais"
• "A Dirge"
Some of his poems also show ideas regarding true love. Two of his marriages with young women has always been a site for
analysis of themes in many of his poems.
OZYMANDIAS
ANALYSIS.
With its heavy irony and iconic line, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" "Ozymandias" is
one of the most famous poems of the Romantic era. It was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–
1822) in 1817 and eventually became his most famous work. He first published "Ozymandias" in the
11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner and included it in his book-length collection of
poems Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems in 1819.
The poem describes the half-buried remnants of a statue of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II and
contrasts the pharaoh's proud words with his ruined likeness.
How Was "Ozymandias" Created?

There are actually two Ozymandias poems, and they were written as part of a friendly writing
competition. The poet Horace Smith spent the end of 1817 with Percy Shelley and his wife Mary
Shelley (the author of Frankenstein). During this time, Percy Shelley and Smith challenged each other
to a poetry competition. The Shelleys moved in literary circles, and they and their friends would
often challenge each other to writing competitions, so this wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
For this competition, Shelley and Smith wrote about the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses
II ("Ozymandias" is the Greek name for Ramesses II). Earlier in 1817, it was announced that
archaeologists had discovered the remains of a statue of Ramesses II and were sending the
fragments to the British Museum. This may have been the inspiration behind the theme of the
competition. Ancient Egypt in general was also very much in vogue among the British upper classes,
and many of Shelley's contemporaries took a great interest in the period and any new archaeological
discoveries in Egypt.
In writing his poem, Shelley was highly influenced by ancient Greek writings on Egypt, particularly
those of a historian named Diodorus Siculus. His work Bibliotheca historica, contained a section on a
statue of Ramesses II: One of these, made in a sitting posture, is the greatest in all Egypt, the
measure of his foot exceeding seven cubitts.…This piece is not only commendable for its greatness,
but admirable for its cut and workmanship, and the excellency of the stone. In so great a work there
is not to be discerned the least flaw, or any other blemish. Upon it there is this inscription: – ‘I am
Osymandyas, king of kings; if any would know how great I am, and where I lie, let him excel me in
any of my works.
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.
What Is the Meaning Behind "Ozymandias"?
What message was Shelley trying to convey with the poem Ozymandias? The major theme behind
"Ozymandias" is that all power is temporary, no matter how prideful or tyrannical a ruler is.
Ramesses II was one of the ancient world's most powerful rulers. He reigned as pharaoh for 66
years, led the Egyptians to numerous military victories, built massive monuments and temples, and
accumulated huge stores of wealth. He eventually became known as Ramesses the Great and was
revered for centuries after his death.
Throughout the poem, Ramesses' pride is evident, from the boastful inscription where he declares
himself a "king of kings" to the "sneer of cold command" on his statue. However, "Ozymandias"
makes it clear that every person, even the most powerful person in the land, will eventually be
brought low, their name nearly forgotten and monuments to their power becoming buried in the
sand.
It is an understatement to say that Shelley was a clever man. While one can read this poem to be
about an ancient leader of Egypt, the poem could also be read as a criticism for the world in which
Shelley lived. Ever the political critic, Shelley is perhaps warning the leaders of England that they,
too, will fall someday. It implies that all rulers, dynasties, and political regimes will eventually
crumble as well, as nothing can withstand time forever. At the time the poem was written, Napoleon
had recently fallen from power and was living in exile, after years of ruling and invading much of
Europe. His fate is not unlike Ozymandias'. When Ozymandias orders "Look on my works, ye mighty,
and despair!" he meant to cause his rivals despair over his incredible power, but he may have only
caused them despair when they realized their ignominious end was as inevitable as his.
What Poetic Devices Does "Ozymandias" Include?
For a fairly short poem, "Ozymandias" is full of poetic devices. A poetic device is a linguistic tool that
a poet can use to help convey their message, as well as make the poem more interesting to read or
hear. In this section we discuss the key poetic devices in the Ozymandias poem.
Sonnet
"Ozymandias" is a sonnet, which is a type of poetic structure. All sonnets, including "Ozymandias"

are fourteen lines long and written in iambic pentameter. The iambic pentameter sounds more
natural than many other rhythms, but it still has a purposeful enough rhythm to easily differentiate it
from normal speech (even in the 1800s no one would naturally speak the way "Ozymandias" was
written).
Rhyme
Contrary to many other sonnets though, "Ozymandias" has an unusual rhyming scheme, following
the pattern ABABA CDCEDEFE. Most sonnets follow the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA and CDECDE or
CDCDCD. Note also that the poem plays with its rhymes in another way: a number of its rhymes are
actually slant rhymes (“stone” and “frown” in lines 2 and 4, "read" and "fed" in lines 6 and 8, and
“appear” and “despair” in lines 9 and 11). The rhyming scheme is more similar to the Italian sonnet
scheme than Shakespeare.
The sonnet was actually invented by an Italian writer Giacomo da Lentini. It alian poet of the 13 th
century. It served as a love poem of 14 lines from a man to woman the first 8 lines or octave poses a
problem, the last six lines or setset solves the problem the 9 th line or volta brings a sharp turn which
brings about the move to the resolution. The rhyme scheme of this poem is abba abba cdecde. This
type of sonnet gave way to the Petrarchan sonnet (Italian) Petrarch wrote 366 sonnets to his lover
Laura who rejected him. Petrarch simply made it famous The Petrarchan sonnet gave way to the
Shakespearian Sonnet of the 16th century which containes 14 lines 3 quatrains and a couplet with
Iambic Pentameter and the rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef gg. The remanence of the Petrarchan
sonnet can be found in the fact that it contains an octave that discusses the statue by keeping
anonymity on its identity and purpose. The setset reveals the identity and solves the question about
its purpose by saying that it serves to show the powerlessness of the human condition over time and
nature. The rhyme scheme is partly Shakespearian which shows the influence of the Shakespearian
tradition, to this mixture Shelly simply chips in his own technical innovation to state the idea that
everything can be subjected to change and nothing remains permanent even if it’s the sonnet.
These changes to the traditional rhyme scheme heighten the similarities between the poem and the
statue that it describes: both are works of art that appear to be broken and missing pieces, and both
still endure despite the passing of time.
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. Most
would probably consider this a Nonce Sonnet. Nonce refers to any poetic form in which the rhyme
scheme is made up by the poet. Technically, Shelley’s rhyme scheme is a nonce sonnet. However,
apart from the rhymes, things/Kings, the sonnet is close enough to the Petrarchan rhyme scheme to
be a minor variation
Sonnet is a love poem, Its appeal to the concept of love with regard to the arrogance of great rulers
like Ozymandias portrays the fact that people like him are always in love with themselves and are
true Narsicists.
Sonnets have been a standard poetry format for a long time—Shakespeare famously wrote sonnets
—and it would have been an obvious choice for Shelley and Smith to use for their competition since
sonnets have a set structure but still allow the poet a great deal of freedom within that structure.
Synecdochal meaning - such as in the line, “The hand that mock’d them”, where the hand is used to
refer to the sculptor at large. The most significant key to understanding Shelley’s agenda in
“Ozymandias” resides in the verb “to mock.” To mock most frequently means to treat an object,
person, or idea with contempt or ridicule. It also means to imitate that object, usually for derision, or
to produce an insincere or counterfeit version of the original object. In this sense the heart is
what fed the hand – the hand that mocked and gave life to lifelessness through compassion and
morality – through art. It is because of the human heart that anything at all survived and continues
to survive. And perhaps Shelley means to instruct us that art is the highest and most durable
manifestation of the human heart.
Caesurae
A caesura is a break of meaning and rhythm within a line. Shelley uses several within the poem and
each one has significant effects.
The first falls after 'Who said:' in the second line. The pause here mimics the traveller's intake of
breath before telling his story, dramatising the moment as well as creating distance between the
description of the statue and the poet's retelling, almost as if recalling from memory.
The second caesura comes after 'Stands in the desert.' The very final full stop and ending of the
sentence reinforces the sense of isolation surrounding these strange, ruined legs. The final caesura
repeats this effective trick, following 'Nothing beside remains.' This short, grammatically complete
and isolated sentence stands within the poem like the statue in the desert.
By contrast, much of the rest of the poem is formed of long, complicated sentences that stretch on
and on, like the desert or time itself.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of a sound or letter at the beginning of multiple words in a sentence or
paragraph. There are several instances of alliteration in "Ozymandias" including the phrases "cold
command" and " boundless and bare."
The repetition in alliteration often makes a poem sound more interesting and pleasant, and it can
also create a soothing rhythm in contrast to the tension caused by enjambment (see below).
Apostrophe
An apostrophe is a poetic device where the writer addresses an exclamation to a person or thing
that isn't present. In "Ozymandias" the apostrophe occurs in the inscription on the statue's pedestal:
"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" This isn't being spoken to anyone in particular, just
whoever happens to come across the statue.
Apostrophe was particularly common in older forms of poetry, going all the way back to ancient
Greece. Because Shelley was using an ancient Greek text as inspiration for his poem, he may have
wanted to include poetic devices from that time period as well.
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel or diphthong sounds in one or more words found close
together. It occurs in the phrase "Half sunk a shattered visage lies." The short "a" sound in "half" and
"shattered" is repeated. The "a" sound is actually repeated throughout the poem, in words like
"traveller," "antique," "vast," and even "Ozymandias" himself. Like alliteration, assonance can be
used to make a poem more interesting and enjoyable to listen to.
Oxymoron
colossal Wreck’ – the adjective ‘colossal’ means ‘like a colossus, a larger than life statue’; colossi
were always meant to be tall and majestic structures that commanded awe from the people who
looked upon them. The fact that this one is broken with the pieces turned on their sides and ‘half
sunk(en)’ into the sand undermines its once impressive power.
Enjambment
Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence beyond a line break, couplet, or stanza without an
expected pause.
In "Ozymandias" there are numerous examples of enjambment, including "Who said—"Two vast and
trunkless legs of stone/Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand," and "Nothing beside
remains. Round the decay/Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare" In both examples, the line
break occurs in the middle of a sentence.
Enjambment is a way for the poet to build action and tension within a poem. The tension comes
from the fact that the poet's thought isn't finished at the end of a sentence. Each line with
enjambment is a mini-cliffhanger, which makes the reader want to keep reading to learn what
happens next. Enjambment can also create drama, especially when the following line isn't what the
reader expected it to be.
Shelley uses enjambment, which involves a string of words stretching across the boundary of the
end of one line into the beginning of the next, to have his lines enact the stretching of time or sand
that his words describe. This use of enjambment occurs first in line two, when describing the
statue’s legs that still stand despite the passage of time: the fact that the content of the line
stretches to the next mirrors the way that the legs themselves have also endured through time.
Shelley’s enjambment of line 6 stretches the phrase about Ozymandias’s "passions" being preserved
in his stature all the way into line 7; this stretching of the flow of the text across two lines again
seems to mirror the way that the sculpture has allowed Ozymandias's passions to similarly survive.
The poem also uses enjambment to end the poem, in lines 12 and 13. Once again this use of
enjambment seems to support the idea of vastness and the passage of time, but these lines describe
not the survival of a human structure, such as the statue, through time, but rather the "boundless"
desert that has swallowed up all remnants of Ozymandias's empire other than the stature. It is also
worth noting that lines 12 and 13 are the only two consecutive enjambed lines in the poem—which
suggests that the endurance of the desert is even more powerful than the endurance of any human
artifact, and will in the end wear all traces of humanity away.
Irony
Irony is when tone or exaggeration is used to convey a meaning opposite to what's being literally
said. The Ozymandias meaning is full of irony. In the poem, Shelley contrasts Ozymandias' boastful
words of power in with the image of his ruined statue lying broken and forgotten in the
sand. Ozymandias might have been powerful when he ordered those words written, but that power
is now long gone, and his boasts now seem slightly silly in the present time.
Symbol
Sand
Dessert represents fall, disruption and tragedy in archetypal criticism. Sand is a symbol for nature’s
power and also for time itself. The sand has eroded and buried the statue and all of Ozymandias’s
works, a reminder that nature can destroy all human achievements, no matter how substantial.
Because it also destroyed the statue over time, and because of the idea of sand in an hourglass, sand
is also a symbol for time, which has similarly worn down and eventually buried Ozymandias's empire
The statue
The statue of Ozymandias has a few different symbolic meanings. First, it is a physical representation
of the might of human political institutions, such as Ozymandias’s empire — this is the symbolic
purpose for which Ozymandias himself had the statue built. However, because the statue has fallen
into disrepair, it also holds a symbolic meaning that Ozymandias didn't intend: how comparatively
fragile human political institutions actually are in the face of both time and nature’s might.
The statue also symbolizes the power of art. Through the sculptor's skill, the statue captures and
preserves the "passions" of its subject by stamping them on "lifeless" rock. And the statue also
symbolizes the way that art can have power beyond the intentions of even those who commission it.
While Ozymandias saw the statue as a way to forever capture his power and magnificence, the
poem hints that the statue so thoroughly reveals Ozymandias's haughty cruelty that it also serves to
mock him. While Ozymandias's great works have been destroyed and disappeared by nature and
time, art in the form of the stature endures, both keeping Ozymandias's memory alive, but not in
entirely the ways he would have wanted.
It is also possible to interpret the statue in a third way. Because Ozymandias is clearly a tyrant, the
fact that the statue has become a "wreck" hints that the statue might symbolically represent the
speaker of the poem's hope and belief that tyranny will always crumble, which also happened to be
one of Shelley’s own personal political passions.
Period
The short sentence “Nothing besides remains.” is another example of how Shelley expertly uses
punctuation to enhance the poem. This is the only time that he uses a period in the entire poem,
and it completely halts the reader’s momentum and even expectations to some degree,
Metaphor
To start, Ozymandias carries an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem. All around the
traveler is desert—nothing is green or growing; the land is barren. The statue, however, still boasts
of the accomplishments this civilization had in the past. The desert represents the fall of all empires
—nothing powerful and rich can ever stay that strong forever. This metaphor is made even more
commanding in the poem by Shelley’s use of an actual ruler—Shelley utilizes an allusion to a
powerful ruler in ancient Egypt to show that even someone so all-powerful will eventually fall. Here
the traveller is also a metaphor for Diodorus.
SUMMARY
SECTION1
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 narrator, who is most likely Shelley himself, is the one recalling the poem as told to
him by the traveller. The introduction of this mysterious traveller may serve multiple roles. The most
immediate effect is that it instills a sense of fantasy, wonder, and even adventure. Admittedly cliche,
many grand tales start off similar to this, with phrases like “Once upon a time, in a faraway land…”
Another use of the traveller, is that if Shelley did take any heat due to his British anti-colonialism
sentiments, he could pass the blame to the fact that he is not actually the one saying these things,
he is just innocently passing on the message. Although a weak excuse at best, it does at least
somewhat distance himself from what is being said. Shelley distancing himself from the poem via
the interjection of a traveller perplexes William Freedman, especially because he considers him the
“preeminently personal poet” (65). Freedman argues that the character is used for the main purpose
of adding or removing validity to the story. “For what is quite undeniable is that - whether at the
price or added profit of credibility - the poet distances himself from the poem's subject by having all
details supplied by some unnamed traveler” (Freedman 65). He follows this thought by again
remarking how unconventional this is for Shelley. 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. Put
another way, these lines establish a structure in which the speaker acts as a kind of frame through
which the reader is exposed to what the traveler has seen. The reader, then, encounters the statue
through first the words of the speaker, and then also through the words of the traveller. By building
such a layered structure, Shelley begins to establish the theme of art in the poem, and the way that
art, and interpretations of art, can reverberate from person to person in a way that can endure. 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(It is also possible to
consider this poem as a dramatic monologue .def). 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.
In these lines, the reader, through the eyes of the traveller, sees two massive legs carved from stone
lying in the desert sand. Nearby, the face of the statue is half-buried. The face is broken, but the
traveller can still see the sculpture is wearing a frown and a sneer. From this, he is able to tell that
this ruler probably had absolutely power, and he most definitely ruled with an iron fist. It is also easy
to interpret that this ruler probably had a lot of pride as the supreme leader of his civilization.
The traveller then turns his attention to the sculptor who made the statue, commenting that
whomever the sculptor is, he knew his subject very well. Shelley writes, “Tell that its sculptor well
those passions read/Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things…” Shelley also seems to be
commenting in line seven that while there is an end to natural life, art is eternal—it survives.
Lines eight through eleven give more details about the sculpture, and the latter ones include words
that have been etched into the ruler’s pedestal.
Section 2
In these lines, the reader, through the eyes of the traveler, sees two massive legs carved from stone
lying in the desert sand. Nearby, the face of the statue is half-buried. The face is broken, but the
traveler can still see the sculpture is wearing a frown and a sneer. From this, he is able to tell that
this ruler probably had absolutely power, and he most definitely ruled with an iron fist. It is also easy
to interpret that this ruler probably had a lot of pride as the supreme leader of his civilization.
The traveler then turns his attention to the sculptor who made the statue, commenting that
whomever the sculptor is, he knew his subject very well. Shelley writes, “Tell that its sculptor well
those passions read/Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things…” Shelley also seems to be
commenting in line seven that while there is an end to natural life, art is eternal—it survives.
Lines eight through eleven give more details about the sculpture, and the latter ones include words
that have been etched into the ruler’s pedestal. Shelley writes,
Section 3
The traveler provides interesting insight into the leader here. First, his hands show that the pharaoh
mocked his people, yet his heart was not all bad: he fed and cared for his people, as well. This line
provides an interesting dichotomy often found in the most terrible of leaders. The words written on
the pedestal on which the leader sits also tells of Ozymandias’ personality. He is ordering those who
see him to look upon all that he has created, but do not appreciate what he has done. Instead,
despair and be afraid of it. These words perfectly depict the leader’s hubris (self absorption). In the
words of William Spanos, the two characters are “Ozymandias, who obviously symbolizes the
innocent arrogance of youth and the unconscious life of action; and the sculptor, who symbolizes
the experienced humility of age (in the sense that the artist is the inheritor of the age-old wisdom of
human experience) and the life of conscious contemplation” (14). The “age-old wisdom” of the
sculptor is easily seen by the words Shelley uses in the poem. The sculptor purposely depicted him
with a frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer, and while this may be flattering to Ozymandias because it
makes him seem strong and powerful, the sculptor did it ironically. He knew that Ozymandias was an
egotist, and put those features on the statue to deride him, although Ozymandias remains unaware.
This is reinforced by the clever but obvious double meaning of the phrase “The hand that mocked
them” (line 8). The word mocked means created, as well as made fun of something. Sapnos also
relates the two sets of characters by saying “The sculptor is to Ozymandias what the traveller is to
the speaker” (15).When you think of this claim in terms of past vs present, as well as in terms of
knowledge/experience vs ignorance/inexperience, it is a fitting analogy by both Sapnos and Shelley.
Ozymandias calls himself 'king of kings' - a phrase taken from Biblical language - which smacks
somewhat of arrogant pride. It could imply that his subsequent obscurity was a punishment from
God - a subject that Shelley considered in several of his other poems.(The title ‘King of Kings’ seems
very arrogant from a modern Western perspective because it sounds like the title claims to be the
ruler of all rulers on Earth. However, this is actually a common title given to Persian Kings of the
Middle East. It means something equivalent to ‘Emperor’. In Judaism, the title is also used to refer to
God, and in the Bible, it is used to refer to Jesus. Therefore, Shelley’s contemporary readers may
have understood the term in more of a Biblical than a historical context, and therefore been inclined
to see it as blasphemous and overconfident) The religious connotations here range from the
persecution of Hebrews by the Pharoah to the aggressive policies that the catholic church undertook
to keep its control over the political and economical power of the state. Shelly did not like religion,
perhaps he might be mocking the Pharoah and the Hebrews who clashed with each other in the
name of their God. It can also be seen as a poem that discourages the Catholic church from pursuing
political and economic power as its transient and against the religion’s true ideals which value
virtues like love, spirituality and peace.
The last three lines, however, take on a different tone. Now, the leader is gone, and so is his empire.
Shelley implements irony into these lines to show that even though this broken statue remains, the
leader’s civilization does not. It has fallen, much like the statue, and has turned to dust. Shelley was
an avid republican, opposed to monarchy and tyranny in all forms and enthusiastically supporting
democratic revolutions the hues of this viewpoint is can also be seen in the central theme of the
poem.
Section 4
These are powerful lines, and the traveler almost seems to be mocking the ruler. Shelley’s diction
here is important. He uses words such as decay and bare to show just how powerless this once-
mighty pharaoh has become. There is absolutely nothing left. The leader, much like his land, and
much like the broken statue depicting him, has fallen. It is in these lines that the theme of the poem
emerges: All leaders will eventually pass, and all civilizations will eventually fall.
Who is Ozymandias?
Ramesses II or Ramesses the Great, is known as Ozymandias in Greek historical sources. He was the
third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt and is often regarded as the mightiest, most celebrated,
and greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. The poem takes inspiration from a statue of Rameses II that
can be found in the British museum – it is called ‘Younger Memnon’ and it bears an inscription: “King
of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one
of my works.”. Ozy’ comes from the Greek ‘ozium’ which means ‘air’ and ‘mandius’ comes from
‘mandate’ which means ‘to rule’ so Ozymandias is the ruler of air, or the ruler of vast resourses.
What is the theme of ‘Ozymandias’?

The central theme of the poem is the transience of glory, as well as power. It also taps on the
themes of the futility of life, the fate of history, ravages of time, antiquity, and impermanence. The
main theme is introduced in the very beginning where Shelley’s speaker describes the “colossal
Wreck” of Ozymandias half sunk in the lone desert.
Why was ‘Ozymandias’ written?
In 1817, the British Museum announced that they had acquired a statue of Ramesses II, an Ancient
Egyptian ruler. Shelley was inspired by the fact and started writing this poem in the same year. In the
Christmas of 1817, Horace Smith and Shelley chose a passage from the writing of the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus. The passage described a similar statue and quoted the inscription: “King of Kings
Ozymandias am I.” Shelley wrote this poem inspired by this description of the statue of Ozymandias
from Diodorus.
What is the irony in ‘Ozymandias’?
The irony of this sonnet lies in the last few lines. After reading the lines, “My name is Ozymandias,
King of Kings;/ Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” readers can understand the nature of
the speaker. He is a haughty ruler who, under the impression of being the most powerful, dares to
challenge the Almighty. What has happened to him? The next lines ironically express it better.
According to Shelley’s speaker, “Nothing beside remains.” With just three ironic words, Shelley
destroys his self-conceit.
What is the metaphor in ‘Ozymandias’?
The poem begins with a metaphor. Shelley uses the metaphor of a “traveller” for pointing at the
Greek historian Diodorus. Besides, the title is a metaphor. It refers to a fragment of Ozymandias’s
statue. Furthermore, a metaphor, “colossal Wreck” is used as a reference to Ozymandias.
Themes
“Ozymandias” Themes
Theme The Transience of Power
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 traveller 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.”
Theme The Power of Art
Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” famously describes a ruined statue of an ancient king in an empty
desert. Although the king’s statue boastfully commands onlookers to “Look on my Works, ye Mighty,
and despair,” there are no works left to examine: the king’s cities, empire, and power have all
disappeared over time. Yet even as the poem insists that “nothing beside” the shattered statue and
its pedestal remains, there is one thing that actually has withstood the centuries: art. The skillful
rendering of the statue itself and the words carved alongside it have survived long after Ozymandias
and his kingdom turned to dust, and through this Shelley’s poem positions art as perhaps the most
enduring tool in preserving humanity’s legacy.
Although the statue is a “wreck” in a state of “decay,” its individual pieces show the skill of the
sculptor and preserve the story of Ozymandias. The face is “shattered,” leaving only a mouth and
nose above the desert sand, but the “frown,” “wrinkled lip,” and “sneer” clearly show Ozymandias’s
“passions” (that is, his pride, tyranny, and disdain for others). The fragments interpret and preserve
the king’s personality and show onlookers throughout history what sort of a man and leader
Ozymandias truly was. These fragments, then, are examples of art’s unique ability to capture and
relate an individual’s character even after their death. In fact, the poem explicitly emphasizes art’s
ability to bring personalities to life: the speaker explains that Ozymandias’s “passions” “yet survive”
on the broken statue despite being carved on “lifeless” stone. Ozymandias may be dead, yet, thanks
to the sculptor who “read” those “passions” and “mocked,” or made an artistic reproduction of
them, his personality and emotions live.
In addition to highlighting the sculptor’s artistic skill, Shelley’s poem also elevates the act of writing
through its focus on the inscription of the statue’s pedestal. The pedestal preserves Ozymandias’
identity even more explicitly than the statue itself. The inscription reveals his name, his status as
royalty (“King of Kings”), and his command for “Mighty” onlookers to “despair” at his superiority and
strength. His words are thus a lasting testament to his hubris, yet it is notably only the words
themselves—rather than the threat behind them—that survive. Without this inscription, none would
know Ozymandias’s name nor the irony of his final proclamation. In other words, his legacy and its
failure only exist because a work of art—specifically, a written work—preserved them. The poem
therefore suggests art as a means to immortality; while everything else disappears, art, even when
broken and half-buried in sand, can carry humanity’s legacy. The poem also displays Shelley's own
conception of the importance of poetry and poets, whom he views as more powerful than rulers or
military leaders because of the way they shape the thought and cultural trajectory of people. As an
atheist, Shelley saw poetry as especially important to the human spirit, replacing the obsolete
superstitions of religion. Thus the statue of Ozymandias, who built great Egyptian temples, passes
away into history, but the poem of the atheist Shelley remains in its place.
This power of art is reflected by the composition of the poem itself. Shelley was aware that the
ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus had described a statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and
had transcribed the inscription on its pedestal as "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." Shelley’s poem exists solely
because of Siculus’s description: Shelley and his friend and fellow writer Horace Smith had
challenged each other to a friendly competition over who could write the best poem inspired by
Siculus's description. This poem was Shelley’s entry, and it became by far the more famous of the
two. Like Siculus’ description of the statue, this poem keeps Ozymandias’s story and words alive for
subsequent generations. The very composition of this poem, then, dramatizes the power of art: art
can preserve people, objects, cities, and empires, giving them a sort of immortality, and letting
future generations “look on [past] works” not with despair, but with wonder.
Theme Man Versus Nature-As a Romantic poet, Shelley was deeply respectful of nature and
skeptical of humanity’s attempts to dominate it. Fittingly, his “Ozymandias” is not simply a warning
about the transience of political power, but also an assertion of humanity’s impotence compared to
the natural world. The statue the poem describes has very likely become a “colossal Wreck”
precisely because of the relentless forces of sand and wind erosion in the desert. This combined with
the fact that “lone and level sands” have taken over everything that once surrounded the statue
suggests nature as an unstoppable force to which human beings are ultimately subservient.
Shelley’s imagery suggests a natural world whose might is far greater than that of humankind. The
statue is notably found in a desert, a landscape hostile towards life. That the statue is “trunkless”
suggests sandstorms eroded the torso or buried it entirely, while the face being “shattered” implies
humanity’s relative weakness: even the destruction of a hulking piece of stone is nothing for nature.
The fact that the remains of the statute are “half sunk” under the sand, meanwhile, evokes a kind of
burial. In fact, the statement “nothing beside remains” can be read as casting the fragments of the
statue as the “remains” of a corpse. The encroaching sand described in the poem suggests that
nature has steadily overtaken a once great civilization and buried it, just as nature will one day
reclaim everything humanity has built, and every individual human as well.
The desert, not Ozymandias, is thus the most powerful tyrant in Shelley’s poem. It is “boundless”
and “stretch[es] far away” as though it has conquered everything the eye can see, just as it has
conquered Ozymandias’s statue. Ozymandias may be the king of kings, but even kings can be
toppled by mere grains of sand.
“Ozymandias” Vocabulary
Antique-The traveller comes from an “antique” land, which implies that his nation is ancient in the
sense that it has a deep connection to the past, or perhaps even that its past outweighs its present.
However, the word "antique" in the poem also has a metatextual connotation: Shelley’s poem was
inspired by the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus’s account of a real-life destroyed statue of
Ozymandias, and the poem even paraphrases Siculus's account in lines 10 and 11. As a result, the
traveller from an "ancient" land could be Siculus himself (and the "meeting" between the speaker
and the traveler would actually be the act of reading Siculus’s account). In this way of looking at the
poem, "antique" can be seen as referring to the book containing the account, which could be
described as being "antique" either because it is itself old, or because it contains ancient writings.
Trunkless-here means “without a torso.” Shelley uses this word to introduce readers to the statue’s
ruined condition. It has two legs standing upright, but the body to which those legs should connect
has fallen and disappeared.
Visage-means “face,” and in this case refers to the face of Ozymandias’s statue. Though shattered, at
minimum the face's mouth and nose are intact, which is enough to convey the ancient ruler’s
personality: cruel, condescending, and tyrannical.
Passions-refers to Ozymandias’s emotions, and in particular, his arrogance, hatred, and sense of
superiority. The sculptor originally read those “passions” on Ozymandias, and then carved them onto
the stone, where they could be likewise read by passersby like the traveller who describes the statue
to the speaker.
Stamped- means “carved or engraved.” However, “stamped” also calls to mind what Ozymandias
wanted to do to his opposition: stamp them out. The use of "stamped" implies that Ozymandias’s
tyranny is permanently branded into the statue along with his other features.
Mocked-As he describes the artist who made the statue of Ozymandies, the traveller notes the
features of the statues face as well as the “hand that mocked them.” Mock, in this context, has two
meanings. First, it means both to make a copy or replica, as in the phrase "mock up." Second, it
means to make fun of someone, as in "the bully mocked his victim's appearance."
By using the word "mock," the traveller suggests on the one hand that the sculptor made an
excellent likeness of Ozymandias, but also that, by portraying Ozymandias's arrogant cruelty so
vividly, the sculptor ridiculed, or at least implicitly critiqued him.
Remains- in this poem can have three different meanings. It can be the verb “to remain,” so the
sentence reads “Nothing else is left,” or it could be one of two nouns. “Remains” can refer to a
historical relic or object, so the sentence would mean that there is nothing left apart from the
artifact of the statue. Or "remains" could mean a corpse, in which case the broken statue is being
metaphorically portrayed as a dead human body: there was nothing besides these remains.
“frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer”
The nasty words “frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer” all emphasize to the reader the anger and
arrogance of the ancient ruler. The mean, hard-sounding alliteration of consonants in “cold
command” helps to give the feeling of his empty, ruthless rule. On line 7, the words “survive” and
“lifeless” serve several purposes. The juxtaposition of these two contrasting words highlights the
absurdity of what is being stated. How can the King’s emotions still survive if they are only being
represented by an inanimate piece of rock? Maybe something being lifeless is the only way for it to
truly live on forever. This paradoxical element strengthens the overall theme of the poem; all living
things, no matter how great, can not outmatch the force of time.
Pedestal-The ninth line, besides the use of the word “pedestal” to once again show the status and
mightiness of the King, may seem devoid of meaning compared to the rest of the text, but it serves a
very important purpose in the overall structure of the poem. This simple line serves as the turn in
the poem, setting up the exclamation that succeeds it. The end of the line has the poem’s first and
only colon, serving to hold back the reader from moving on, building up anticipation of what the
words might say. It may seem insignificant, but if this was not organized exactly how Shelley
constructed it, it would not nearly be as effective
Mighty and Works
The capitalization of “Works” again alludes to Ozymandias believing himself to be a divine being. The
capitalization of the complement “Mighty” is interesting because this adjective would be describing
the person reading the pedestal, so it seems odd that Ozymandias would forfeit such a praise to one
of, in his opinion, lowly subjects. It is likely that Shelley has Ozymandias say this because he believes
that just being in the presence of such a glorious monument and empire would make the spectator
worthy of being called “Mighty” just in this moment. Or it could be that it is used mockingly, and
Ozymandias draws attention to the difference in status and wealth between him and the reader of
the pedestal.
Despair-The final word of this line is perhaps the most genius and expressive one in the entire poem.
Instead of telling the reader to “admire” or “respect” his empire, he instead wants them to
“despair”. He wants everybody else to be envious of or flat out saddened by his awesome empire.
“Despair” also has an ironic effect, because if Ozymandias were to read his words and see his
destroyed kingdom now, “despair” is the exact thing he would do. He did not know that he was
foreshadowing the eventual decline of his empire.
WRECK- Another comedic and ironic touch that Shelley puts in is the capitalization of “Wreck” in line
13. Just like the capitalized “Works” mentioned previously, the “Wreck” is referring to the same
thing, just now in a destroyed state. The capitalization in “Wreck” is used to mock Ozymandias’s
former accomplishments in accordance with the saying “The bigger they are the harder they fall.” If
Ozymandias was willing to braggingly capitalize “Works”, then he should have to suffer through
either Shelley or the traveller’s capitalization of “Wreck.”
Others-The poet is determined to re-create the barren desert landscape, the poetic counterpoint to
the morbid and deserved fate of Ozymandias, the pompous fool. To do so requires that he carefully
circumscribe his choice of descriptors to connote neither grandeur nor panoramic vista, but rather
singular loneliness and constrained, fragmented solitude. Hence such modifiers as “trunkless,” “Half-
sunk,” “shattered,” “decay,” and “wreck” serve his purpose well. The words mocked trunkless and
cold- command contain aggressive sounds(/K/ sound is regarded as aggressive) this aggressiveness
can be attributed to both the sarcasm of the poet and the arrogant monarchical nature of
Ozymandias. (The adjective 'cold' in 'cold command' could go to show that his authority is over. The
adjective gives us a sense of death and unfamiliarity, showing how his commands are no longer
enforced and are dead to the world.) These words are also in the past tense showing a loss of power.
The Hand that mocked and the heart that fed – The hand could be tyrannical as it operates under
the passions oozing from the heart. The hand could also be that of the sculptor who mocked him by
marking a sneer on his face. The artist felt the tyrannical nature of Ozymandias with his heart and
this took the form of art.
The Frame of narration
Little detail is given about the first-person narrator of the poem. The narrator encounters a traveler
who visited Egypt, and the body of the poem is a quotation, consisting of what the traveler told the
narrator. This sort of framing was typical of fiction and exotic tales in Shelley's period, with the
framing used to give stories verisimilitude. The lack of information about narrator and traveler keeps
the focus of the poem centered on the statue and the way modern people might encounter the past
rather than the specific experiences of a narrator.
Meter
As is typical for a sonnet, the meter of "Ozymandias" is generally iambic pentameter, in which lines
are ten syllables long with an alternating unstressed-stressed pattern. For instance, line 9 of the
poem is perfect iambic pentameter:
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
However, the meter of the poem also has several moments of irregularity that it uses to create
particular effects. For instance, in line 2, there is a slight spondee (stressed-stressed) on “two vast”
that emphasizes the immensity of the statue’s legs:
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Similarly, the third line begins not with the expected iamb but with a trochee (stressed-unstressed)
before returning to iambs for the rest of the line:
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
The trochee puts the stress on "stand," emphasizing the strange sight of these two legs (and nothing
else) sticking up out of the flat desert.
In line 7, Shelley includes a caesura in the form of a comma, and then emphasizes the pause from
the comma by changing the meter: “stamped on” is trochaic, not iambic.
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The caesura and break in the metrical pattern serve to emphasize the "stamp," which in turn
highlights the way that the sculptor's artistic talent permanently captures the traits of Ozymandias
such that they have endured through time when everything else that Ozymandias created has
disappeared. (It also hints that Shelley believes that his own artistic talent, which is exemplified in his
use of the caesura and changed meter, also can create an enduring work of art.)
In lines 10 and 11, the poem's play with meter gets a bit more extreme.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The best way to look at the meter of line 10 is probably to read the "dias" in Ozymandias as a single
syllable (though of course it isn't). Doing so makes that line iambic pentameter in theory, but in
practice the fact that "dias" truly is two syllables elongates the line in odd ways. The metrical
oddities then continue in line 11, too, since “Look on” is trochaic, as is the foot made up of the "y" in
"mighty" followed by the "and." Rather than being smooth, the meter of these lines is spiky. This
spikiness, in the only lines of the poem that quote Ozymandias directly, makes them stand out
against the more regular meter of the rest of the poem. This fits with Ozymandias's speech in two
ways: first, it shows how Ozymandias saw himself as standing above and separate from the rest of
the world. Second, though, it also echoes the way that only the legs of Ozymandias's statue now
spike up from the otherwise flat, regular sands of the desert. Ozymandias may have stood out for a
while, but nature and time have ground him back down.
Overall, throughout the poem, then, Shelley plays with, or breaks, the meter. In part, he does this to
emphasize aspects of individuals lines. But it is also possible to argue that the shifting meter in the
poem has a more general thematic purpose as well: that it makes the poem feel as “broken” as the
statue, while at the same time showing Shelley's skill to be at least the equal of the sculptor.
“Ozymandias” Speaker
The poem's primary speaker is anonymous and genderless, and all Shelley tells us about them is that
they "met a traveller from an antique land." The poem pointedly does not include details about what
this speaker thinks about the traveller, about Ozymandias, or about the destruction of Ozymandias's
works. In fact, the speaker seems to primarily serve a function of distancing the reader from what is
being told, as the speaker is relating a story told to him or her by the traveller. Shelley uses the first
person pronoun "I" to begin his sonnet then cleverly switches the focus to a third person, a traveler,
whose words are contained in the remaining thirteen lines. This was highly unusual for a sonnet at
the time and reflects the poet's innovative thinking.
This traveller, the poem's second speaker, is likewise anonymous and genderless (although
statistically, their extensive travels to the middle of isolated deserts would make it likely they were
male, as women were strongly discouraged from being adventurers or making any sort of perilous
journey when Shelley wrote the poem). Some readings of the poem speculate that the "traveller" is
actually the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus, whose description of a statue of Ozymandias
inspired Shelley to write his poem. In this interpretation, the "meeting" of the speaker and the
"traveller" occurs through the act of the speaker reading Siculus's words.
Regardless, the traveller seems interested in art and the way it functions, but spends even more
time describing the personality of the poem's third speaker: Ozymandias himself, through his words
on the pedestal. Of all three speakers, the poem provides the most details about Ozymandias: he
announces himself as a king whose concerns focus on his own greatness, power, and legacy.
Ozymandias” Setting
 “Ozymandias” has two primary settings. The first is an unspecified time and place—most
likely, early 19th century England when the poem was written—where the speaker and the
traveller meet. The second is the recent past in Egypt, where the traveller sees a ruined
statue of Ozymandias in the desert. The poem only spends a line and a half on the first
setting, devoting the remaining twelve and a half lines to the desert scene: by focusing on
nature and the crumbling remnants of a statue, the poem shows how nature can destroy
everything human-made, from political systems to statues, and yet how art, even when
broken, can provide a kind of artistic immortality.
It's worth noting that if one subscribes to the theory that the traveller to whom the speaker refers is
actually Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek writer whose description of an actual destroyed statue
inspired Shelley's poem, then the settings of the poem subtly shift. In this case, the first setting is any
location in which the speaker can "meet" Siculus (i.e. by reading Siculus's passage in a book), while
the second setting is still the desert in Egypt, but it is Egypt not during Shelley's time but rather
during the time of the ancient Greeks.
Allusion
Ramses II-Most literary scholars agree that "Ozymandias" is based on the ancient Egyptian ruler
Ramses II, or Ramses the Great (1302-1213 b.c.e.). Smith and Shelley had read about him from the
work of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who related an inscription describing Ramses as a
great king whose works could not be surpassed. As a ruler, Ramses is remembered for his many
imposing monuments, as well as for his roles as warrior, king, and peacemaker who made Egypt a
world power again. In the years before Ramses's reign, Egypt lacked timber resources and other
materials possessed by neighboring lands. Egypt was also politically and militarily weakened, and
thus was vulnerable to being invaded and overtaken. Because of these threats to the kingdom,
Ramses's father (the pharaoh) had his son trained in battle and military leadership. When he was
twenty-five years old, Ramses became pharaoh following his father's death.
In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh held absolute power, although he was expected to rule and treat his
people honorably. Ramses was determined to be a monument builder and make a name for himself.
He went so far as to remove the names of other pharaohs on existing monuments and replace them
with his own name. Ramses's works indicate that he associated himself with the sun god, Ra. The
sun imagery compelled the Egyptians to give Ramses greater loyalty. Historians and archaeologists
consider the two rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel to be among Ramses's most impressive surviving
structures. The temple of Amun-Ra and Ramses features four sixty-seven-foot tall statues of Ramses.
In the thirty-first year of his reign, however, an earthquake struck, destroying the top half of one of
the statues.
Ramses even sought to construct a new Egyptian capital near his birthplace in the eastern Delta. The
city was named "Domain of Ramses Great-of-Victories," but little of the city remains today. Another
interesting historical feature of Ramses's construction efforts were battle reliefs. Although Ramses
was a skilled and courageous warrior and general who saw many victories, he also suffered military
defeats and land losses. But reading the reliefs, an observer would believe that Ramses had handily
defeated his enemies in every battle. Ramses is remembered as a powerful and accomplished king
who brought strength and stability to Egypt. He was skilled at international relations, while also
reinforcing his status among his own people. He died after sixty-seven years of rule. He was buried in
the Valley of the Kings, but robbers stole from, desecrated, and burned the tomb. After being
rewrapped and then moved twice, the mummy of Ramses is now in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
Napoleon -Some critics believe that the poem is partly—though certainly not entirely—a response to
the rise and fall of the Emperor Napoleon, in France. He had invaded Egypt a few years earlier and
fought with the British to keep control of the Nile and its lands. Napoleon eventually lost out and
was exiled to a distant island, St Helena, where he died in 1821. In this reading, the poem serves as a
warning to those who seek political and military power, that they will fall be eventually be forgotten,
just as Ozymandias was. Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt led to an interest in
King George-
Colossal wreck - The 'colossal wreck' simply refers to the statue again; 'colossal' means 'giant', with a
particular reference to giant statues like the Colossus of Rhodes and 'wreck' means anything that has
been broken or ruined.
Britain’s Colonial Empire -Besides the technical aspects and purely literary merit of the text, it
functions as a political commentary by Shelley on the increasing cruelty and repression of regimes
during his time, especially the empire of his homeland, Great Britain. Shelley just missed the French
and Indian War and the American War of Independence, but was born just in time (1792) to grow up
during both the French Revolutionary (1793-1801) and Napoleonic Wars (1802-1815). Britain’s
financial domination over the rest of Europe and naval superiority let them form the largest global
empire in all of history (Morgan). Shelley was alive during the peak of this empire, and his
opportunities to observe some of England’s more unscrupulous tactics, from their countless military
engagements to their championing of the slave trade, undoubtedly caused him to formulate some
opinions that are evident in his writings. It does not take much searching to find the political
overtone in Ozymandias. Even just the basic themes of large empires falling and the ironic hubris of
rulers applies to Britain just as well as any superpower. By writing a poem like this, Shelley takes on
the role of the traveller or the sculptor in real life, trying to warn the country of their destructive
ways and growing conceit.
Egyptian Ruins -Egyptian Ruins – A number of remnants of Egyptian culture exist as ruins today. Each
complex houses the tomb of a different Egyptian pharaoh, and in front of them lies the Sphinx. One
of the largest (and certainly the most famous of these) is the Pyramids of Giza (just outside Cairo).
The Valley of Kings is located opposite Luxor on the west bank of the River Nile, where pharaohs
(including Ramesses II) were mummified and buried in deep tombs along with sacred artifacts.
The title ‘King of Kings’ – An allusion to religion, (look at section 3 summary)

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Allusion

Revolutionary……to the skylark…odeto the west wind

The cloud ..natural beauty and joy,,mother of earth , nurse. Of plants

Skylark piwer of nature

West wind- minute observation of nature and object.. power of wind

Against church – queen map – against imoralitiese in commerece,monarchy etc.

Mans progress against the evil forces of nature

Symbol of knoelege and intelligence

Threee shelly keats Byron

Denied rituals , glorification and scientific treatment of nature…ideal love

Published in the examiner

Published under pseudonym

The skill of the artist is emphasized more.

Conversation to the poet.

Warning to leaders of his time- they will fall

“Teach me half the gladness.

That thy brain must know,

Such harmonious madness

From my lips would flow.

The world should listen to thee-as! am listening

“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed”

IDEALISM IS SHELLEY’S POETRY

“The One remains, the many change and pass;

Heaven’s light for ever shines, Earth’s shadows fly,

Life like a dome of many-coloured glass,

Stains the white radiance of Eternity,

Until Death tramples it to fragments.”

“I can give not what men call love.”

MELANCHOLY AND OPTIMISM IN SHELLEY’S POEMS

“O lift me from the grass!

I die! I faint! I Fail!”

Similarly, in the poem Adonais, Shelley describes himself as:

“He came the last, neglected and apart:

A herd-abandoned deer, struck by the hunter’s dart.”

SUPERNATURALISM IN SHELLEY’S WORKS

Percy Shelley: Poems Summary

“Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” (1816)

“Mont Blanc’ (1816)

“The Mask of Anarchy” (1819)

“England in 1819” (1819)

"Song to the Men of England"

“Ode to the West Wind” (1819)

“The Indian Serenade” (1819)

“To a Skylark” (1820)

• "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"

• "Ode to the West Wind"

• "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"

• "The Mask of Anarchy"

• "Ode to the West Wind"

• "The Indian Serenade"

• "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"

• "The Mask of Anarchy"

• "Song to the Men of England"

• "Ode to the West Wind"

• "The Mask of Anarchy"

• "Song to the Men of England"

• "Ode to the West Wind"