In Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," the author describes an ironic event of the past to reveal to the reader the theme of his sonnet. As the underlying implicit message, the most theme in "Ozymandias" is that immortality is an unachievable human desire which even through possessions, fails to exist. Summarizing the story behind the reign of Ramses II, the third king of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, this theme is clearly displayed throughout the sonnet. .
In the first eight lines or octet of this sonnet, Shelley, through the eyes of a traveler, provides a description of a worn down and dismally conditioned monumental sculpture. Creating vivid imagery, the reader is able to picture a destroyed stone statue which stands weak in the middle of a desert, carries an arrogant and commanding appearance and is left with only his head and legs. This description provides the foundation for the sestet or last six lines of the poem in which Shelley discusses the words engraved in the monument's pedestal and relates these words to a contradictory reality. In the octet, Shelley portrays the ancient king as someone with "a shattered visage" (line 4) and a "sneer of cold command" (line 5). This leaves the reader to think of Ramses II as a fearsome and stuck-up ruler who wishes to leave behind his legacy of power and in pursuing this dream, has ordered the building of this statue. Validating the king's conceitedness, the words "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" (lines 10-11) are told, in the sestet, to be engraved into the monument's pedestal. This reveals to the reader that Ozymandias firmly believes his statue will stand forever. In describing himself as the "king of kings" (line 10), Ozymandias puts himself above all forces and in asking the world to "Look on my works" (line 11), shows that he is under the impression that not only him, but his kingdom will stand forever.
Ozymandias Ozymandias to express to us that possessions do not mean immortality. ... Shelley expresses this poem's moral through a vivid and ironic picture. ... Shelley used imagery and a very impressive ironical way to write this poem. ... In Shelley's work, it described the visage sneer of cold command(Line, 5). ... All Ozymandias wanted was immortality, which everyone in this world, even today, would die for. ...
While Keats" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a meditation of the timelessness of an Urn, Shelley's uses a statue to represent the failure of anything to endure over time in his poem "Ozymandias." ... However, for Shelley, just as the statue of Ozymandias is broken and changed from its intended form, so too does the meanings of words change. The statue of Ozymandias in Shelley's poem represents the instability and destruction of all things over time. ... Unlike the timelessness of the urn in Keats poem, the statue of Ozymandias in Shelley's poem represents the inability of anything ...
The poet has a deep, mystic appreciation for nature which is strongly evident in works such as "Mutability", "Ozymandias" and "Hymn of Intellectual Beauty." ... In the poem "Ozymandias," written in 1817, Percy Shelley uses metaphors for the momentary nature of political power, to portray his own political beliefs and attitudes. Here, the statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II, or Ozymandias, symbolizes political tyranny. ... Shelley's political sonnet portrays the impersonal metaphor of the statue. However, Ozymandias does not only symbolize poli...
I think Shelley feels that fame and power are meaningless - they don't add up to anything in the end since we all end up worm food. Just as Ozymandias' great monument deteriorated over time, so does a person's fame/power. ... Ozymandias had the monument made to prove that he was great, but all that remains of Ozymandias's power has disappeared. ... The emphasis is on the fact that Ozymandias wanted to be known for ever, but now he is forgotten. ... Shelly could also be using Ozymandias to prove a point by showing us all that time and nature consume all, but instead of let...
However, while Shelley's speaker almost revels in the fact that the boasts of Ozymandias have been proven to be hollow in his death, Robinson presents a very different picture: a man who appears not to care for riches and power and who sees death as an escape from personal misery. ... Comparing this to Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was a romantic poet. ... Ozymandias is wrote in a sonnet because Shelley wants to be very expressive and enable him to explore the differences between art and political power. ... At the start of Ozymandias, it is the only time Shelley talks in the poem and in the o...
A poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley is called Ozymandias. Ozymandias is seen as romantic because it challenges the power of kings. ... Bysshe claims that the power of the king is just a moment in time all will seize to exist, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." ...
Such examples can be found in his poems such as "Ode to the West Wind,"" "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,"" and "Ozymandias."" ... The arrangement and structure of the stanzas also serve purpose to emphasize Shelley's theme (Shelley, Complete Poems 233). ... Similes such as "Like hues and harmonies of evening- (Shelley 8) are used to elaborate on the fact that the power Shelley describes is balanced. ... In Shelley's "Ozymandias,"" the title is used to convey the feeling that possessions do not equal immortality. ... He then goes on to say that "on the pedestal these words appear: ...
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," is considered to be one of the finest sonnets of all time. ... To Shelley, no one in the world lives forever, but their great works continue long past the individual is gone. ... Although Shelly's, "Ozymandias" uses unrecognizable rhyme scheme, we can fell a sense of rhyme that develops in the poem. ... Shelley's, "Ozymandias" is unique in the fact that we find a dual speaker. ... "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!...
"Ozymandias," by Pearce Bysshe Shelly, uses his poem to describe what was once a powerful figure now has all been forgotten. ... "I met a traveler from an antique land," "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelly, who basis his poem on a historical monument, and uses personification and verbal irony throughout his poem. An example of personification in "Ozymandias," is identified in the first stanza, "I met a traveler from an antique land," referring to himself as meeting the traveler. Shelley narrates "Ozymandias as him meeting a "traveler from an antique land," who begins to explain some of the ...
