Ozymandias

Ozymandias  by Percy Shelley

 

 I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

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

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

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

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias”, “King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!’

Nothing beside remains.   Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

Percy Shelly

He was one the greatest English Romantic Poets.  He was born on 4^th August 1792.  His views on poetry, political and society were radical. He became popular and recognized after his death.  He is well known for his poetic imagery, his verse forms and skeptical views and materialist ideas in his creations. His popular works are “Ozymandias” (1818), “Ode to the West Wind” (1819), “To a Skylark” (1820) etc.  The dramas “The Cenci” (1819) and “The spirit of Solitude” were considered as his major works.  He wrote prose fiction and political essays and expressed his views on political and social and philosophical issues.  Most of his prose works were not published due to political and religious reasons. His political writings became popular among Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Bernard Shaw.  His personal life was disturbed by family crises and political views.  He was into self-exile in Italy and died in an accident at the age of twenty nine in 1822.

 

Summary of the poem

It is a sonnet, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The title “Ozymandias” refers to the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II who ruled from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE.    In this poem Shelley describes a ruins of a statue of Ozymandias. And the poem gives a message about the short lived existence of a mighty ruler.   The King Ozymandias was once a commanding ruler over all the kings.  But time has defeated him and now his ruined statue is remaining.  Even the head of the statue is half sunk in the sand and shows the might of the ruler.  What remains is not his power or strength but the sculptor’s work of art.  The poet conveys a great message of the short lived power and might, and the immortal and long lived creative works of art.

 

Detail analysis

 “I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert visage lies”

A traveler meets the speaker of the poem during his journey in a desert, an antique land.  He describes about a two large stone legs of a ruined statue which lacks a torso to make it connected and stand upright.   It is about the status of the ruins of the giant statue. It’s a story of a powerful ruler.  “Trukless” says that the legs are there without a proper support.  The “desert” says it was ancient Egypt.   And also the traveler says about the broken head of the statue which was half buried in the sand. The broken head means the destruction of the whole statue and no one knows what had happened to this statue and who destroyed it.  It may due to the nature and time.

 “Whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read”

These lines give more details about the statue.  The traveler describes the face of the statue which was half buried but it had the same expression which showed the might power of a ruler Ozymandias.  “Frown”, “wrinkled up” and “sneer of cold command” the poet describes the expressions of the ruler through the traveler. And we can understand the mighty ruler was a strict commanding powerful man. Then the traveler shifts his attention to the man who made the statue.  The “Sculptor” who made the statue knows the feelings and emotions of the mighty ruler well to create such face with great skill and perfection.

 “Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

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

 The admirer of the statue praises him more for his perfections.  “Which yet survive” says the long life of the work of the artist.  His creations still alive (Stamped), otherwise it is a lifeless stone made with mud and clay.  The sculptor’s hand mocked,( made) his creation  who is full of passion and the creator felt the emotions of his creation and it inspired him to make it. So his heart and hand give life to the statue which is alive still.

 “And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;”

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

 Now the traveler reads the words written on its pedestal.  The stone inscription says the name of the man “its Ozymandias”.  He is the “Kings of Kings” the ruler wants to show his mighty power and his great works, so all would look at him with respect and think themselves less.   The works includes his famous constructions he made.  Her the mighty king Ozymandias warns other mighty kings not to imagine too much of themselves for they cannot come near to the greatness of Ozymandias.  The poet brings out the proud and commanding nature of the kind. But ironically his statue is ruined by nature which he or anyone could not stop.

 “Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay

Of the colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The long and level sands stretch far away.”

 Finally the traveler says that there is nothing except the ruins of the statue remains on the sand all around. “The Colossal Wreck” refers to the giant statue and the emotions attached to the statue are now nothing now but dust and sand. “The boundless and bare” the long and level symbolize the passing of time.  The king is no more at least the bits and pieces of the statue of the king is there, the art of the sculptor is lives.  The poet’s message is humans are part of the creation in the passage of time.  Our achievements and might and our pride will slowly disappear.  But the work of art remains as immortal.

 

Sonnet

A sonnet is a 14 line poem with an iambic pentameter.  The word sonnet comes from sonetto an Italian word which means “a little sound or song,” it’s a popular form of poets.  There are several types in sonnet.

The characteristics of Sonnet

v  All sonnets contain 14 lines which further could be broken into four sections called quatrains.

v  The rhyme scheme is ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG

v  Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter with 10 beats per line. With stressed and unstressed syllables.

Literary Devices

Themes

Power

Ozymandias describes the status of a broken statue of a Mighty King in a desert.  The inscription of the statues says about the king as “king of Kings”.  His achievements are great and make others less.  Such a great king is no more, not even his statue.  The poet describes the last pieces which says about his mighty power is his broken statue only.  He criticizes the reality of great rulers and kingdom.  Nothing remains.  They disappear in the passage of time.   Time is mighty which has the greatest power to prove the reality of nature.   Even the words of the king has no meaning for all he achieved and built are crumbled to dust. 

Art

The poet describes the status of the statue.  The statue of the Mighty king is no more.  All destroyed by the force of nature.  But the art is there living in the form of the statue.  The skillful work of the sculptor and the words remain there to show the everlasting immortal nature of the art. The statue is a “wreck” and in a state of “decay”, but the small pieces of it show the artistic skill of the sculptor.  The fragments express the king’s commanding personality and shows the mighty powers of Ozymandias.  The artist could bring out ones inner personality in his works.  The lifeless stone could express the nature of the king by his hands.  The emotions live in his eyes and lips.  Without the inscription no one would know the name of the king or his power.  The words in the inscription talks about his legacy.    Thus the poet praises the immortality of the Art.

 

Man versus Nature

Shelly has different views on nature and human approach towards nature.  He respects the blessings of nature whereas he does frown at the human power which dominated and control it.  The poet brings out not only the temporary political power but also the incapacity of human against nature.  The statue of the great kind Ozymandias becomes a “Colossal Wreck” because of the force of wind erosion in the desert.  “trunkless” refers to the status of the statue which is destroyed by the sandstorms and its stands there without a torso.   “Shattered” shows the human weakness.  Before nature and its force we fail for nothing remains.  Ozymandias may be a mighty king but he too could be a mere sand and dust.

 

 

Symbols

Sand is power according to the poet.  He brings out the power of sand which is the part of nature and shows how the wind could destroy all great works of human.

The statue of Ozymandias too looks as a great symbol of political power.   The statue speaks a lot about the greatness of the achievements of the Mighty King.  But very soon the readers can realize the destruction of the great work and what remains there is nothing but a few pieces and half sunken body of the statue.  The time and nature have the force to bring down the political power.  The poet describes the haughty cruelty and the commanding expression of the King are well visible in the statue and its eyes.  The great work of the sculptor is so perfect. The poet uses great language to bring out how the time can destroy the power.

 

Poetic Devices

Enjambment

 

The poet uses enjambment to describe the status of the broken legs without a torso.  The legs stand even after the passage of time to say about the greatness of the king and the skillful work of the artist. The poet in every situation doesn’t leave a chance to use the technique to make the poem visible with its great message.

 

Form

The poem is a sonnet and made up of 14 lines of iambic pentameter. But after certain level the poem breaks the form of the sonnet.  The poem follows the Shakespearean and Petrarchan forms at the beginning.  Then it goes away from these two forms.  By breaking the two form, the poet wants to show the broken status of the Mighty King’s statue. He conveys the uncertainty of power and achievements of the humans.

 Rhyme Scheme

It is a sonnet and the poem follows the rhyming pattern of Shakespearean sonnet which is ABABCDCDEFEFGG.  But in certain situation the pattern differs as ABABACDCEDEFEF.

“Stone” and “frown” “read and “fed” and “appear” and “despair” are slant rhymes. The changes of rhyming pattern shows the artistic work of the statue and the poem. The purpose of the changes may be due to its thematic purpose.

 Setting

The primary setting is the time early 19^th century England when the poem was composed.  The poem speaks the primary setting in the few lines.  The remaining lines describe the desert and focuses on the power of the nature.  The poet shows the destruction of power and the immortality of art by the piece of the broken statue.

Thus the uncertainty of power and Mighty achievement of humans are nothing before the nature. The poet is a great artist to paint the picture of uncertain short lived power and authority of Mighty human, but at the same time he feels content to appreciate the skillful work of art of the human sculptor which can live for ever.

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