Ozymandius Flashcards
Subject of Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The narrator of Shelley’s poem says he met a traveller from an “antique” (ancient) land and then tells us the story the traveller told him.
The man had seen the remains of a huge statue in the desert.
There were two enormous legs without a trunk and next to them lay a damaged “visage” (face).
At the foot of the statue were words which reflected the arrogance and pride of Ozymandias.
Those words seem very hollow now as the magnificent statue is destroyed and none of the pharaoh’s works have lasted.
Form and structure of Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Form:
- Ozymandias is a sonnet (a poem of 14 lines), although it doesn’t have the same, simple rhyme scheme or punctuation that most sonnets have.
- Some lines are split by full stops and the rhyme is irregular at times.
- It is written in iambic pentameter, which Shakespeare used widely in his plays and sonnets.
Structure:
- The first line and a half up to the colon are the narrator’s words, the rest are those of the traveller he meets. There are no clear stanzas as such.
- Instead, it is one, 14-line block of text that is split up with lots of punctuation throughout.
Imagery of Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Shelley creates a memorable image of this “vast” and once great statue, now in ruins.
- He also places it in the middle of a huge desert with nothing else around it, which highlights its fall from grace. What was once so magnificent - a symbol of the king’s great power - is now “sunk… shattered… lifeless”.
- We have no sympathy whatsoever with the statue or the king though, due to some of Shelley’s descriptions: “sneer of cold command… hand that mocked them” and the arrogance of the words displayed at the bottom.
Attitudes, themes and ideas of Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- It is likely that Shelley told the tale of the fall of this once-great king to make a general statement about politics in his day.
- He was not a supporter of the royal family. No matter how great a king might be, he isn’t immortal - neither he nor his works will last forever.
- Even the mightiest will fall: Ozymandias thought his works would last forever and would be above everyone else’s. Not true. Nothing is left intact and his own statue is in ruins.
- You can’t beat time. Even a king dies and so will all the things he has built.
- Pride comes before a fall. Ozymandias’ boasts about his own greatness seem very hollow now.
- The power of art and words. The only thing that does last is part of the statue and the powerful words on the inscription.
Comparisons to Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
My Last Duchess & River God:
- All the poems have one clear, distinct voice.
- Each poem is built around a character who has some distinctly unpleasant qualities.
- All of the poems are about power in some sense. Ozymandias was incredibly powerful in his time but is now merely a remnant of the past, the Duke is powerful in the society of his time and perhaps demonstrated his personal power by killing his wife, the River God exerts his power through drowning people.
- None of the characters actually exists in the real sense (Ozymandias is ancient history). The Duke himself and even his title died out centuries ago. The River God is a mythical creation.
- The characters in each poem clearly display a dark side to their nature.
How does Shelley create a negative impression of the ruler Ozymandias in this poem?
- The first description of the face of Ozymandias is:
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
These two lines are packed with negative vocabulary which taken together creates an immediate bad impression of Ozymandias. - His permanent expression, a frown, indicates displeasure and this is built upon in the next line.
- “Wrinkled lip” is a physical action that could indicate contempt;
- “sneer” is also a contemptuous action and we do not get the sense that his “command” is one welcomed by his people as it is carried out in a “cold” manner.
- It is clear that he was not a well-liked king (although he obviously liked himself a great deal) as the poet writes that Ozymandias’ hand “mocked” his people.
- One thing that does remain of the statue is the inscription, which reads:
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Whatever the works were, it seems they were not created for the benefit of his people but merely to fuel his own ego. He lays down a challenge to others who (like he does) consider themselves “Mighty”.
All in all, Shelley creates a character it is difficult - if not impossible - to like.
Context of Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is one of the most famous poets in all of English literature. He was one of a group of poets who became known as The Romantics.
Born in Horsham, Sussex, he came from a wealthy family and was in line to inherit both riches and his grandfather’s role as an MP. He went to Eton College and then Oxford. He was expelled from university for writing about atheism (not believing in God) which led to him to fall out with his father who disinherited him.
In the same year, 1811, he eloped and married aged 19. His bride, Harriet Westbrook, was only 16. They moved to the Lake District where he continued to write.
Three years later, Shelley left for Europe with another woman, Mary Godwin (who later became Mary Shelley and wrote Frankenstein).
Shelley had children by both women. In 1816, Harriet Shelley’s body was recovered from a lake - it was thought she had killed herself. Three weeks later, Shelley married Mary.
Shelley drowned at sea during a sailing trip to Italy.
Shelley was well known as a ‘radical’ during his lifetime and some people think Ozymandias reflects this side of his character.
Although it is about the remains of a statue of Ozymandias (another name for the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II) it can be read as a criticism of people or systems that become huge and believe themselves to be invincible.
