Analysis on "Ozymandias"

"Ozymandias" is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was
published in 1818, and it is one of Shelley's most famous works and is often praised for its
powerful imagery and deep themes. Here is the original poem.
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 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
First let us paraphrase the poem. The narrator of the poem meets a traveler, who tells him about a
statue that he saw when he was in a desert. The traveler first noticed two huge stone legs
standing without a body. Near the legs, on the sand and partially sunk into the ground, was the
head of the statue; on its face, despite being shattered and cracked, was a nasty, arrogant look.
The sculptor who made the statue made it look very lifelike. At the foot of the statue was an
engraving, which read ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and
despair!’. Clearly, the statue had once stood in the midst of a vast and impressive empire, but
that’s the irony: by the time the traveler sees the statue, not only is it crumbled and broken, but it’s
isolated and in the middle of the lonely desert.
In Ozymandias, we can see criticism of the monarchy. The overlying message of the poem is
simple: you think you are all powerful and supreme, but power is transitory - it doesn’t last forever -
it changes over time. Many believe that the poem is a condemnation of King Ramesses II.
In terms of form, ‘Ozymandias’ is a sonnet. There are 14 lines, structured as a group of eight lines
(the octave) which presents details about the broken statue, and a group of six lines (the sestet)
which focus on the pedestal and its now ironic message of complete power. It has the rhyme
scheme of ABABA CDCEDEFEF which does not exactly follow the form of Petrarchan or
Shakespearean.
We can see some symbolism in this poem. Even in the modern world statues are symbol of power
wealth and status humans build statues to commemorate great kings and queens and people of
significance so we can infer that in Ozymandias the statue is symbolic of the power and influence
of the Egyptian king who built it however there is an important difference instead of a whole statue
Shelley presents us with a broken one two trunkless legs of stone and a shattered visage,
meaning face which lies half sunk in the sand so what does a broken statue symbolize the failing
of human power over time the collapse into insignificance of a once great ruler who is slowly being
buried by the endless sand of the desert.
Shelley uses this symbolism to make a point about human power; it is ephemeral which means
lasting for a very short time. This idea links well with the middle part of the poem which uses irony
saying the opposite of what we mean to powerful effect after describing the face of the statue
which still bears the sneer of cold command of its subject. The narrator describes the writing on
the pedestal or base of the statue. It reads my name is Ozymandias king of kings look on my
works ye mighty and despair. Shelley uses this inscription to reveal the pride and cruelty of
Ozymandias the message essentially means I am the greatest of all kings bowing down before my
power but given that we know the statue is now symbolically broken and the king dead. This
creates a sense of irony. It may say king of kings but the king is dead. It may say look on my works
and despair but I think Shelley wants us to feel hope since this cruel ruler with his sneer of cold
command is no longer powerful, he has been defeated not by humans but by time.
Shelley uses irony here both to mock the cruel king but also to present a truth that no human
power lasts forever the poem ends by further emphasizing that truth the sentence nothing beside
remains ends with a break in the middle of a line which forces us to stop and consider the
emptiness behind Ozymandias power. His empire has fallen and besides the broken statue with
the prideful words carved on the pedestal there is nothing else left behind. It can be seen as a
metaphor for the foolishness of great rulers who see themselves as gods but are still only human.
Shelley shifts the focus to the desert with the final line of the sonnet; the lone and level sands
stretch far away here, distancing the reader from the statue and the king and encouraging us to
look towards the steadiness and power of nature, a force Shelley believes is far greater than any
monarch.