Ozymandias
By: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dramatic Situation
Who: the speaker, the traveler, the sculptor, and ozymandias.
What: A shattered statue, and “the lone and level sands” (Shelley 14).
When: The speaker's time is uncertain, the stranger talks about recent travels, and
ozymandias is ancient.
Where: An unknown location where the speaker and the stranger talk, the desert.
Why: did ozymandias greatness fade?
How: Time.
Point Of View
The point of view the poem uses is first person.
In the beginning of the poem we have speaker that introduces a traveler and from
then on the traveler narrates the poem.
We do not know much about the traveler because they do not give background
about him. Most of the poem is about the traveler describing the statue lying in the
desert.
Subject and Theme
The subject of the poem is the statue of Ozymandias. The theme of the poem is
greatness. The theme speaks to greatness as being temporary, if you define
greatness as possessing and owning many things. True Greatness would last
forever and cannot be destroyed. This pharaoh was once great enough for a
statue to be made of him but just like himself his statue is now broken down. The
inscription on the statue, “ ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my
works, ye mighty and despair!’ ” (Shelley 10-11), shows his works as a king could
have once been great but now they mean nothing. Just like the civilization and
culture he ruled over, the greatness of this man is decayed.
Literal meaning
This play describes a meeting between the speaker, and a traveler who tells
the speaker of the statue of Ozymandias he found in the desert. Since
Ozymandias was a pharaoh the desert is most likely located in egypt.
Analysis of any symbolic/implied meaning
This poem makes an ironic statement about the nature of greatness, and how
temporary it can be. The inscription on the base of the shattered statue, “‘My
name is ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works ye mighty and despair!’”
(shelley 11-12), contrast strongly with the state of the statute and its surroundings.
This contrast highlights the fact that the greatness referenced by the inscription
has since faded away. The broken statue and empty desert are used to symbolize
how far greatness can fade. This is particularly effective as the evidence the
inscription gives for the greatness of its subject is the magnificence of his
surrounding works, now having fallen to time and the desert.
Tone
The tone of this is sarcastic and ironic. Ozymandias wanted to be looked at as
great, but what he did is not considered as that anymore. Shelley used the words
“shattered” (Shelley 4), “half sunk” (Shelley 4), “decay” (Shelley 12) to show that
the statue is meaningless and that the greatness that Ozymandias wanted was
foolish.
Cultural/Historical Context
Ozymandias is the Greek name for Ramesses II. He was the pharaoh of the 19th
dynasty. He lived to be 96 years old, and had over 200 wives, and over a hundred
children. Ramesses II was highly important in the history of Egypt. They thought of
him as Ramesses the Great.
Grammar/Meaning Clarity/Unfamiliar Terms
This poem depicts how over time greatness can only be defined on history and stories.
This weathered statue has a description about a civilization that a “king of kings” used to
rule, and ruled it well, accordingly. This civilization is now miles of level sand and does not
exist anymore.
Visage: The surface of an object subjected to view.
Important images/Figures of Speech/Key Concepts
The imagery of destruction that this poem describes is linked to how, over time,
everything that is considered great gets destroyed. The statue itself is destroyed from
erosion, the civilization it was built from is now gone, and the poem constantly reminds its
readers that there is destruction everywhere in this desolate, remote land.
Ozymandias uses a lot of irony throughout its fourteen lines. The statue talks about the
“king of kings” works, but there is nothing but sand and ruins around it. This “colossal wreck”
that represents a “great” man is in a desolate area only surrounded by level sands that have
no end.
Greatness does not last forever and is based on what the majority rule
believes to be true. Ozymandias is only a story now, based on what that
civilization thought at the time.
Structure/Type/Category of Poem
This poem was a sonnet. It is considered a sonnet because it has 14 lines with 10
syllables each, using iambic pentameter. He used the sonnet because he used the
14 lines to write what the traveler needed to say, and nothing more. It does not
leave you with any conclusion or thoughts from the speaker. I think that he did this
on person because Shelly wanted us to draw up our own conclusion after we
listened to what the traveller said about the statue. Usually sonnets are used for
love poems and this was not Shelley intent. I am unsure of exactly why he chose
to use a sonnet to write this, but I think that as the tone of this poem is ironic, he
added another level of it. Most people are expecting something lovey when they
see it is a sonnet, but he starts of with irony by using a sonnet for something other
than what people expected.
Prosody
This poem is a sonnet. The poem is odd to most sonnets as in it is not only
Petrarchan (Sonnet made of 8 lines followed by 6 lines) but it is also mixed with
Shakespearean style (14 lines of 3 quatrains and a couplet). The poem is
structured as Petrarchan style because it starts with 8 lines introducing followed by
6 lines resolving. The poem also is not your usual iambic pentameter (unstressed
followed by stressed syllables). It actually has reverses of iamb which is trochees
(stressed followed by unstressed). Lines have each trochee and iambic
pentameter and therefore separates itself from other sonnets.
Shakespearean start.
Connection To Current Events
A connection to a current event would be Jeremy Lin. Although he was never
great at basketball his greatness was rising for a few weeks and then he lost it like
Ozymandias lost his.
People were thinking he would help turn the Knicks around in that one week. They
were saying it was, “Linsanity”.
Now no one talks about Lin and he is never in the spotlight.