Ozymandias by Percy Byssche Shelley

What is the context of Ozymandias

• Romanticism- power of nature and time, exotic lands criticising the ruling classes

• Shelley’s most famous sonnet is Ozymandias

• Doesn’t stick to the conventions of a sonnet

• Written in 1817

• Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II was discovered at this time, Ozymandias is another name for him

• His tomb was discovered and this was very big at the time

• However he used slaves and ruled tyrannically

• Many of the statues have since crumbled to dust from the elements

• Ozymandias comes from ‘oxium’ which means to breathe or air, and mandate which means to rule. Overall it means he rules over all who breathe, all living things

What are the themes in Ozymandias

• Irony- all that is left is a message on a ruined statue

• Perhaps the poet feels sorry for him, or is laughing at him

• Inevitable downfall of all tyrants’ rules; the impermanence of human power, and the permanence of nature

What is the allegory in Ozymandias

• No one is left to care about him

• Every powerful man or woman will fall from power

• The statue shows all, especially the egotistical, will fall to time

What is the structure of Ozymandias

• Sonnet with iambic pentameter; permanent heartbeat rhythm symbolising that life goes on; ironic because he doesn’t

• Sonnet- ironic love poem?- does he only love his ego and himself

‘I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said - “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone’

‘… that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

• Cyclical structure; the poem begins with enjambment, before we hear about Ozymandias, the poem flows, symbolic of the permanent flow of nature; however, when He appear, we get repeated caesuras, and more punctuation, showing his attempts to control everything, even the circle and flow of life and nature; however, his rule is brief, and by the end, the enjambment returns, symbolic of the permanence of nature, and how human attempts to control it will never last- can be compared with London- this poem describes how human power over nature will never last for long periods of time, and nature is the only thing we can’t control, however London explores how the people in power can and do control everything, even the flow of the Thames, and everything must stay in the same formatted order

• ‘trunkless’ can both show how they lack foundation anymore, showing how this statue which symbolises his securely structured power will always come to end and crumble, but also his disassociation from nature, as trunkless connote trees, shows how he was lifeless on the inside and always was- juxtaposition between the idea of trees and stone; shows he had a ‘heart of stone’, one without empathy and heart, and separate from life; represents the battle of nature and humans

• Repeated alliteration at the end shows how Ozymandias is not the only one, and is instead an allegorical figure to teach the audience about the impermanence of our totalitarian rulers

• Both his statue and the environment surrounding are described to be extremely large, and yet by the end, only the environment remains; nature will always win

‘Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command’

‘Colossal wreck’

• Juxtaposition between the ‘cold’ of Ozymandias and the ‘desert’ shows how this is unnatural for someone like this rule over the people this way, and and defies the natural order of how humans should live

• Triadic structure and polysyndeton emphasise the volume of what has been lost, and taken from the wreck of his power; nature has completely stripped him of all he had, and he won’t be remembered

• Ironic that he ‘sneer[s]’, as if he has the power, and yet he lies, entrenched and suffocated by sand, wishing those who he ruled over told his story

• Semantic field of the sea, water, and boats are used to symbolise the ‘sinking ship’ that his empire was; he tried to fight against the tide, the elements, nature, and as a result, nature sunk his ship, and now all that is left is a ship wreck; nature won

• The writer warns not to look for a fight from a power greater than oneself, as it well end with ugly consequences; romantic themes as well as London; this can be used to compare with London, as they both warn against the outcome of controlling other humans, and attempting to control more than that

‘Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

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

• Objectification and dehumanisation of the subjects of Ozymandias, shows not only the way that they are separated, as ‘Ozymandias’ is not only named, but also given the self-proclaimed title ‘King of Kings’- the writer uses nomenclature to create a divide between the king and his subjects, showing his belief to be superior to all- and yet he dies, and is remembered just as much as his inhuman subjects

• Uses the metaphor of ‘stamping’ on his subjects, to represent how he has all of them ‘under his heel’, a colloquialism used to represent a violent and threatening power dynamic, usually not one which is particularly pleasant

• Juxtaposition between his actions which belittle his subjects, and the possible compassion from feeding them; however on a much deeper level, this is not compassion, and can instead be interpreted as both infantilising his subjects, and gaining further control over them

• For example, during the history of America, the government both caused constant suffering to the native Americans through violent massacres, but also by forcing them into a dependant relationship, by forcing them to depend on the government for food and money

• As a result, the writer, like in London, wishes to teach the reader about the consequences of trying to control people, as slaves in ancient Egypt, or as slaves in London, causes only suffering