The 'Ozymandias' is a sonnet written by English Romantic writer P. B. Shelley.
Ozymandias- Rameses-11 was a Greek pharaoh in Egypt. He was famous for his statesmanship, architecture, military leadership, administrative abilities and building activities.
The central theme of the poem is, inevitable decline of rulers with their pretensions to greatness. Here poet describes a ruined statue, which is in desert, which shows the fragility of human power.
I met a traveller 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 appears :
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."
As we know that the main theme of the poem is about the decline of the arrogant king/person, here poet describes it by comparing it with the various metaphors.
In the beginning narrator meets to the traveller, somewhere on the antique land. The word antique represents the Greek, which has an old cultural value and great kings. Beside this, nothing remains permanent as now the statue of the king is barely standing, and its part are ruined in the desert. The poet tries to say that though it is vast but it has no upper body, which signifies the fragility of human power. Furthermore, poet makes mockery of it by saying that, the face of the statue seems unhappy and unrecognizable, and with it, his fame also vanished in the desert.
Earlier king had a great tongue but nowadays no one hearing him as he lost his identity which was full of arrogance. As poem progresses, poet uses irony to make fun of it by taunting, for instance, poet praises the sculptor because the carvings are yet clear on the face of a statue !
The traveller, talks about the powerful hands and also about the heart of that dying statue, but everything is in a vain. As traveller describes the situation of various parts of the body, suddenly he sees the inscribed words written on the pedestal. Which is written by Ozymandias and describes himself as the king of kings, moreover it shows his pompous claim of mightiness.
However, as time passed nothing remained with him, the only thing people see is the barely standing and half ruined, boundless statue. Here poet tries to say that his ego has been buried into the sand.
In conclusion we can say that poet tries to awake the people who are suffering from the ego and who have full arrogance of their position, but at the end of the day nothing is going to be permanent, thus, people should keep themselves away from the so called stardom. Because many times it becomes the reason of a fall.
Rhyming Scheme : ( Iambic Pentameter) ABABA CDCEDEFEF
I met a traveller 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 appears :
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."
As we know that the main theme of the poem is about the decline of the arrogant king/person, here poet describes it by comparing it with the various metaphors.
In the beginning narrator meets to the traveller, somewhere on the antique land. The word antique represents the Greek, which has an old cultural value and great kings. Beside this, nothing remains permanent as now the statue of the king is barely standing, and its part are ruined in the desert. The poet tries to say that though it is vast but it has no upper body, which signifies the fragility of human power. Furthermore, poet makes mockery of it by saying that, the face of the statue seems unhappy and unrecognizable, and with it, his fame also vanished in the desert.
Earlier king had a great tongue but nowadays no one hearing him as he lost his identity which was full of arrogance. As poem progresses, poet uses irony to make fun of it by taunting, for instance, poet praises the sculptor because the carvings are yet clear on the face of a statue !
The traveller, talks about the powerful hands and also about the heart of that dying statue, but everything is in a vain. As traveller describes the situation of various parts of the body, suddenly he sees the inscribed words written on the pedestal. Which is written by Ozymandias and describes himself as the king of kings, moreover it shows his pompous claim of mightiness.
However, as time passed nothing remained with him, the only thing people see is the barely standing and half ruined, boundless statue. Here poet tries to say that his ego has been buried into the sand.
In conclusion we can say that poet tries to awake the people who are suffering from the ego and who have full arrogance of their position, but at the end of the day nothing is going to be permanent, thus, people should keep themselves away from the so called stardom. Because many times it becomes the reason of a fall.
Rhyming Scheme : ( Iambic Pentameter) ABABA CDCEDEFEF
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