History As Told By The Poet

Shelley’s poem and depiction of Ozymandias could be a symbolic way of promoting his views against the monarchy, as he depicts Ozymandias as a tyrant with harsh descriptions such as “a sneer of cold command” and mocks him with the juxtaposition of “king of kings” and “colossal wreck”. However, instead of obviously putting forward his views and risking negative exposure, Shelley distances himself from the poem with intriguing use of multiple perspectives. The poem begins with “I met”, a first person introduction, but quickly switches to the traveller’s perspective as Shelley depicts what the traveller saw. In this way, he subtly puts across his socialist views without incriminating himself through symbolism and distancing himself from the narrative. In this way, the poem presents two powerful rulers, with Ozymandias symbolising King George.

The life of a dominant king who got lost in the things of the world, resulted in him losing focus on his destiny through power and time. It is a battle between man and the natural world he faced. Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, demonstrates that no matter the position one holds, in time, power can be arrogant and ruling, but cannot ultimately last for an eternity.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote this poem "Ozymandias" to express to us that possessions do not mean immortality. He used very strong imagery and irony to get his point across throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and ironic pictures in our minds, Shelley was trying to explain that no one lives forever, and nor do their possessions. Shelley expresses this poem’s moral through a vivid and ironic picture. A shattered stone statue with only the legs and head remaining, standing in the desert, the face is proud and arrogant, "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read"(lines, 4-6).

He describes the face of the statue as “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies” referring to the way the face of the statue, which by the nature of statues should be high in the air, is lying on the ground half buried. He goes on to describe the “frown,/ And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” enshrined in the facial features of the statue, and remarks on how the detail must have come from the sculptors familiarity of those expressions on the face of the man. Another detail Shelley contributed about the statue was the description of its size: “that Colossal wreck” refers to the enormity of the statue, which leads one to believe that Ramses was inflating his own ego, as well as providing yet another way the pharaoh alienated himself from the common people and tried to alienate himself from other rulers. Also interesting is Shelley’s use of the word “colossal” to describe the statue, as it refers to the Colossus of Rhodes that was build over the harbor leading into Rhodes as a tribute to the sun god Helios. Ramses’ attempt to elevate himself to the status of a god similar to Helios was unsuccessful, as the decay and destruction of the statue revealed how impermanent one man’s time on earth is in the grand scheme of the

Shelley dwells little on the small details of Ozymandias' face, but by Ozymandias' frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, delivered in less than two lines, immediately carry to the reader a vision of a cold, callous, yet strong and determined leader who is commanding his people building his great vast statue hoping his power would be immortal. These concrete items are vital to the description, but are not as strong as what can not be seen. Shelley gives a nod to the talent of the sculptor, from whom Ozymandias received a mirror image of his personality, placed in stone because of his thinking to survive

In Ozymandias, the narrator speaks of an “antique land” that he’s travelled to and comes across a statue which is the King Ozymandias (who is the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.) The structure of the poem is written in an petrarchan

“The Wisdom Of Shelley” by George Elliott Clarke is a beautifully written poem with a darker meaning. There are many interesting things hiding within the poem but there are a few specific ones I will mention. First, there are many different poetic devices used within this short poem. This includes imagery, similes, and repetition. Second, the symbol of this poem is the rose which is mentioned a few times throughout the poem. Third, the theme for “The Wisdom Of Shelley is deception. Each of these points contributes to my understanding of the poem in its own way.

Percy B’s poem “Ozymandias” captures the belief that the King’s words still remain powerful after all this time. The statue is surrounded by desert and is eroded and broken but the belief is still intact that he is powerful and mighty.

The Petrarchan sonnets “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” by John Milton both consider a man’s legacy after death. However, both poems talk about a man’s legacy from very different perspective and come to their own conclusions. In “Ozymandias”, a traveler describes a broken statue of King Ozymandias (the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II) and the barren ruins surrounding the statue. Ozymandias believes that his legacy will last forever. Through the sonnet, Shelley implies that legacies are transient and even the most powerful of men fall in the face of time. “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” is about the internal reflection of the speaker on his legacy as he worries whether or

       The poem gives a wonderful amount of images so a mental picture can be drawn. Just in these six lines Shelley introduces another character, tells all about this sculptor, gives information that is important to the mood of the poem, and lets the image of an upset artist appear in the picture. 

Nothing remains but a set of legs and a lone shadow (Smith 1-3). In 1818 the arrival of the head of Ramses’s II statue sparked the idea into the head of Percy Bysshe Shelley to write the sonnet “Ozymandias”, vibrantly describing the site of where Babylon once stood. Horace Smith wrote a similar poem, with the same name, that not only depicted the sight of forgotten Babylon but also the ideal that the same fate is destined for London.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” declared by an influential leader Martin Luther King Jr. As a soldier againsts unfairness, King strongly states that people should fight for freedom. Driven by human nature, humans are always chasing freedom. In “A Century Later,” the Pakistan-born British poet Imtiaz Dharker uses the poetic devices of symbolism, diction, and allusion to explore how perseverance drives freedom.

By calling himself “king of kings”, he alludes to God and believes he is greater than all other men. He ruled his kingdom solely on the fear of those beneath him. The intimidating language on the pedestal and the statue made for him display that Ozymandias possessed almighty power. To end the poem, Shelley writes, “Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The line and level sands stretch far away.” As time passed, the sand literally destroyed the symbol of what was once the greatest man alive.

The two main ideas that can be seen in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias” are, those with power are deluded in their belief that their power is supreme and invincible, and how art surpases that power. Shelley uses a specific language to communicate these two ideas. When broken down “Ozy” in Greek means breath and “mandias” translates to mandate which means to rule. Already the idea of power and control is quickly asserted in the title. Shelley then uses negative words to describe Ozymandias’s statue and character. The words; sunk, shattered, frown, wrinkled, and sneer make it clear that this poem is not a praise but an attack on the powerful. The alliteration of the hard “c” sound in the words “cold command” is used to describe

On of the most influential romantic English poets of the 19th century was Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was born August 4th 1792 to Sir Timothy and Elizabeth Pilford Shelley in Field Place, Horsham, Sussex, England. (Crook) Shelley was the oldest of six children. He had one brother, John and four sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Hellen, and Margaret. His family lived a very comfortable lifestyle, especially his dad’s father, Bysshe Shelley whom owned quite a few estates. Shelley’s father was also a member of parliament.