Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias
In "Ozymandias," Percy Bysshe Shelley uses a ruined statue of Ramses
II to illustrate the negative aspects of the sublime. Edmund Burke identified
as sublime "the experience of contemplating enormous heights and depths but also
the experience of being isolated from other humans" (Ferguson 339). Both of
these themes figure prominently in "Ozymandias."
The poem opens with a mysterious "traveler from an antique land" (1)
describing the demolished statue of Ozymandias (Ramses II). The traveler serves
as the human consciousness required to give force to the ideas of the
destructiveness of nature and the annihilation of mankind. Because the human
mind can attribute destructiveness to nature, nature needs humans for it to be
perceived as destructive and to continue to be destructive (Ferguson 339). As
Shelley does not state specifically how the statue was destroyed, and given its
remote location, on might assume its destruction was due to an act of nature.
The legs of the statue are described as "vast" (2), while the ruins are a
"colossal Wreck" (13); both descriptions refer to the concept of the sublime as
awe-inspiring and terrifying.
The "vast and trunkless legs of stone" (2), along with the pedestal,
are the only parts of the statue left standing; "near them, on the sand/half
sunk, a shattered visage lies" (3 - 4). The "shattered visage" might be seen as
a form of depersonalization, an illustration that mortals are insignificant and
powerless when compared to nature. Even though Ozymandias is a king, he is
nothing in the eyes ...
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...ether a warning against excessive pride, a discussion of the
negative sublime, or allusion to an unhappy marriage, the fact remains that this
poem is an excellent piece worthy of inclusion in the canon of British
literature. The imagery in the poem, as well as its accessibility, make it
readily enjoyable by any reader.
Works Cited
Ferguson, Frances. "Shelley's 'Mont Blanc': What the Mountain Said." Romantic
Poetry. Ed. Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1993.
"Percy Bysshe Shelley." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H.
Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 698 - 701.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Ozymandias." .The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 725 - 6.
The statue is made of marble, instead of the bronze statue. This statue is one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. The statue is a kind of symbol; he does not in any way a likeness. This is my first expression when I saw the statue: the statue is showing me a simple, clear action that was used by Greek youth sculptures throughout this period. Looking at this statue, he expanded into 3D space, because he is standing straight and facing forward without any exaggerated movements, thus the post makes him look closed-off and a column his limbs are locked in space. Therefore, the standing posture, the decorations on his body, his hair and knee’s texture and how the Egyptians impact Greek art, is what makes me interested in it. A question that has always been in my mind is
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Multibility.” The Norton Anthology English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993. 647.
In conclusion, “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” by John Milton both contemplate the importance of legacy and come to the conclusion that when it’s all said and done, a legacy does not matter. Both use multiple voices and other literary techniques to enhance and highlight their ideas. However, the two sonnets have different reasons for their conclusion. For Shelley, it is because with time a legacy fades to nothing, Milton, on the other hand, believes that a legacy is not important to God and therefore is not important to him.
The poem Ozymandias tells of a king who was very powerful, people feared him. He created statues of himself for people to admire. Now all that remains of his power are remains. What remains of him are memories that are now long forgotten and that the wind carries away. Sand that stretches for miles and miles until it
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
"Ozymandias" written by Percy Shelley, represents the psychological forces of the id as well as the superego, as a charceter in a poem, and as a poetic work. In the poem we encounter a traveler. He brings a message from the desert. There is a statue that exists alone among the rocks and sand. Stamped on the pedestal of that statue are these words, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
This poem describes a story told you by a passing traveler of a ruined statue of a king, Ozymandias, seemingly in a desolate desert. On the statue in is inscribed, “‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’/Nothing beside remain” (“Ozymandias” 10-12). Upon examination of the surrounding land, we realize that the once vast kingdom around the statue has been taken back by the desert, leaving the ironic message on the statue. This poem shows Shelley’s ideas of how all is temporary, especially mankind and our achievements. Showing romantic values, Shelley believed nature is much greater than man and no matter how big your kingdom, mather nature will always take back what was always
The traveler starts off his story by saying “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert…on the sand, / Half sunk a shattered visage lies,” shows how the once complete statue is now broken into pieces laying in the sand. The description makes it easy for the reader to imagine the vacant desert with fragments of Ozymandias in the sand. Shelley expands the idea of the collapse of the empire which once occupied the desert. The traveler elaborates on the description of Ozymandias by stating the words on the pedestal, “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; / Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” One could see that Ozymandias was not a person to be bothered as he was the king and created something astonishing. However, this astonishing item may have been destroyed as time passed, not lasting as long as the word once spoken by the king himself. Shelley ends the poem by utilizing an image of the remains of the empire. The remains being, “Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.” There is nothing to be seen for a long way, and the only thing that can be seen in the desert is the destroyed statue of Ozymandias. The greatest came to an end and remained as fragments in a place unrecognized by the public. Shelley displays his conception of the road of life to eventually disappearing into
According to lines 2, the symbol of ruins is shown in the word “trunkless” this means that the statue is without a torso. This shows incompleteness of the statue. “Nothing beside remains: round the decay” ii. The word “remains” show that there was an empire there but the empire is gone by the time. The time is also changed Ozymandias works to be decayed things “Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare” iii.
It is nature that destroys humankind when the sun disappears and the volcano erupts in “Darkness” and in “Ozymandias,” it is the sand and wind that causes the statue to fall. In Byron’s poem, humans lose the fight for their lives, and in Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias’s statue is powerless because it is lifeless, emphasizing the importance of the themes of life and death to the shared topic of destruction. Although they explore destruction using different language, they share the use of ideas about the destruction of civilization, and the fall of humankind because of nature, life and
Ozymandias, the Greek name for Ramses II, is a sonnet written by Percy Bysshe. Shelley. In the poem, Shelley uses irony as a form of satire, mocking tyranny. The poem was published, according to Ian Lancashire (University of Toronto) in January of 1818.
Sam Shien Jinn English 1B Honors Professor Robert Oventile 11/5/2014 Lycidas and Adonais: A Longinian Analysis While parallels are frequently drawn between John Milton’s “Lycidas” and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais”, both poems, in their isomorphism, delineate and differentiate in their own right. Both works, long considered canons of pastoral elegy, display notable dissonances despite the misleadingly synonymous affinities. The true qualities, lie much deeper within the structures of these works than in the themes they choose to address.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Prometheus Unbound. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose. Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002. 206-283.
“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and Despair!” (Ozymandias, 11) No, not overheard at the English Dept. staff meeting, but a quote from the self-proclaimed once and future “King of Kings” (10), the eponymous subject of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, “Ozymandias”. Ozymandias apparently had the idea that his powerful empire would surpass all others, and endure for all time. It is true that his name has survived, but the poet appears to take a different view of the King’s legacy. The legacy that Ozymandias leaves us with, the poet seems to say, is not one of eternal omnipotence but that of the fool who believes that he or she is somehow different from all other humans and will alone retain their power and pride. Shelley’s use of irony, symbolism, and imagery presents a darkly humorous case that refutes the king’s claim and reminds us all that we, too, are subject to the same fate as Ozymandias. We must admit that power is a temporary possession and all arrogance and vanity will eventually be laid low.
The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ninth Edition. Stephen Greenblatt, eds. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 460. Print.