‘Ozymandias’ is one of the most anthologized poems written by the famous romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Although Shelley wrote the poem in 1817 as a friendly competition to his contemporary Horace Smith, it got published in The Examiner in 1818. Shelley was a poet of radical thought and free will. He explicitly used his writings to represent his political and poetic stands. Shelley believed that poetry by providing moral optimism could make people and society better. He also considered art as an entity that surpasses time. His poems stand out as philosophical reflections of passion, imagination, nature, and political liberty.
The poem ‘Ozymandias’ exemplifies Shelley’s regard for art. It describes the remnants of a statue, which is believed to be that of King Ramses II of Egypt, who was known by his Greek name Ozymandias. The poem has a structure and style that is atypical of Shelley, and it subtly brings in the history of the rise and fall of empires. On the one hand, the poem critiques the transience of power and fame, and on the other hand, it describes how art surpasses time and fleeting glory.
Most critics attribute King Ramses II’s statue as an inspiration behind the creation of the poem. Ramses, also named Ozymandias, was a mighty ruler who ruled Egypt during the 13th century. It was in 1816 that the British Museum acquired the large head of the statue and decided to preserve it. This news triggered the poetic imagination within Shelley and his friend Horace Smith. Both poems describe how the ravages of time result in the decay of fame and power.
Critics also say that Shelley got the details for his poem from the descriptions of the statue by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in his work Bibliotheca Historica. It was Siculus who wrote that the statue of Ozymandias had an inscription that said, ‘King of Kings is I, Ozymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.’ The statue of Ramses present in the museum did not have ‘trunkless legs of stone,’ or an inscription at the bottom as described in the poem. Some critics also say that the poem is indicative of the rise and fall of Napoleon in France. Napoleon, too, was as ambitious as Ozymandias but was overthrown over time. It stands as a remarkable example to all in power that they will also be forgotten over time.
The poem begins when the speaker recalls having met a traveler from an ancient place who told the speaker about a statue he saw in the desert. The traveler said that he saw two vast legs of a stone statue in the desert. The legs of the statue were disconnected from the body, but its massive broken face lay nearby. His face was partially sunken in the sand. The traveler described the face as having a frown, wrinkled lip, and a ‘sneer cold command.’ According to him, the expression on the statue’s face indicates that the sculptor who carved it knew the emotions of the subject well. The sculptor was able to recreate the emotions very well. Thus, it survived even after the death of the sculptor as well as the subject.
The traveler also said that there was a pedestal with the statue with the inscription. As per the inscription, Ozymandias called himself the ‘king of kings.’ He also asked the people, who themselves are powerful, to look at his works to understand his power. However, now nothing remains besides the statue. The statue was damaged and decaying. It was surrounded by empty and flat sand, which was stretching far away. The poem ends with the image of the devastated statue lying lonely and unnoticed in the desert.
‘Ozymandias’ is a poem that puts forth a traveler’s description of a broken statue he saw in the desert. Though the poem begins with an ‘I,’ it is just a framing device. The poem is written in the third person, who can be called the speaker of the poem, narrating the story told by a traveler who came from an ancient land. It is from the traveler’s narration that the speaker came to know about the statue. The third-person narrative in the poem makes the description more objective and impersonal, and the antiquity of the traveler’s place provides the poem’s historicity. Though the identity of the traveler is unknown, as the wordings on the pedestal were taken from Siculus, he could be the traveler, and Shelley could be the speaker mentioned in the poem who learns about the statue from Siculus.
The poem revolves around a single metaphor, that is, the broken and decaying statue. Everything that Ozymandias has captured and established is no longer there. The only thing that remains is the statue, which is on the verge of decay. It stands out as an example of how futile man’s hubris and greed for power are. It reminds humans how insignificant they are and how pointless their attempts to gain fame are.
Also, the poem presents the statue as worthless and praises the sculptor for his elegant skill. The speaker clearly states that nothing established by Ozymandias apart from the work of art has surpassed time. He is only remembered due to the statue. The value of art is praised more in the poem than the glory of the ruler. Critics also read it as a commentary on political and military power, as the poem clearly states that people in power will fall into oblivion, just as in the case of Ozymandias.
The poem by Shelley depicts intertextual relations as well. As mentioned earlier, the poem by Shelley is closely associated with Smith’s poem. The same events and sources inspired both poets. While Smith focuses on the ancient land, Shelley gives attention to the remains of the statue. Nevertheless, both are united in their criticism of hegemony and praise of art. While Smith adopted the Petrarchan form, Shelley used an atypical style. It is also comparable with the poem, ‘Kubla Khan,’ written by yet another romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. While Coleridge imaginatively presents Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome, Shelley uses Ozymandias’ statue to unravel the futility behind the ruler’s boast. The former bases itself on magic and wonder. Whereas the latter exemplifies the transience of power and the permanence of art. Shelley has also borrowed ideas from the references of various Greek sculptures to shape the statue in ‘Ozymandias.’
The poem is in the form of a sonnet, and like every other sonnet, the poem has only fourteen lines. Though, the predominant meter used in the poem is iambic pentameter, where a stressed syllable follows an unstressed syllable, trochee (stressed-unstressed), and spondee (stressed-stressed) pop up in between the lines. The irregularity of the meter gives the poem a special effect. ‘Ozymandias’ does have similarities with the conventional Petrarchan or Shakespearean pattern, but Shelley has changed it a bit. Shelley has blended the octave and sestet. He replaced the old rhyme scheme with a new one, which is ABABACDCEDEFEF. Traditionally poets wrote sonnets to eulogize a person, but Shelley has used it to criticize people in power. Some critics state that this break from the sonnet tradition represents his nature of challenging conventions. In contrast, some others say that it was an attempt to echo the broken structure of the statue. The poem is also tinted with irony as the poet uses the statue, which represented the ruler’s glory, to highlight the drawbacks of his glory.
Shelley has also used caesura, enjambments, visual imagery, pun, and alliteration in the poem. The best part of the poem is its visual manifestation. The poet has done the description of the statue lying devastated in the lunes of sand accurately. The way Shelley portrays the stone legs without a body, the half-sunken face and the pedestal with the inscription on it is very accurate to a pictorial depiction. The readers can imagine the statue as if in a painting.
Caesura denotes a break between words on a metrical foot. It serves the purpose of a comma in the poem ‘Ozymandias.’
Shelley brings a change in the meter after the use of caesura in the poem. Through the method, he tries to highlight the superiority of the sculptor and his artwork over the ruler’s pride. Words also have been stretched from one line to the next, which is known as enjambment. It is a method used to complement the description of the stretching of time and sand in the desert. The pun is evident in the illustration of how the sculptor mocked the ruler’s emotions, and alliterations are present in the fourth line, where the sound, s, repeats itself. All these features make the structure peculiar as it suits the theme of oblivion in the poem. The poet has deliberately forgotten the conventions and does not stick on to any particular pattern of rhyme or any other poetic devices throughout the poem.
Man versus nature
Love for nature is one of the most significant themes that circulate in Romantic poems. The romantic poets have always tried to establish the permanence of nature and its beauty. As a Romantic poet, Shelley, too, was deeply involved with nature poems. The skylark, Westwind, the cloud, and several artifacts of nature have inspired him. The poem ‘Ozymandias’ too subtly comments on the stability of nature and the futility of the human attempt to overpower it.
Along with the critique of power and tyranny, the poem reminds human beings of their limitations. Ozymandias was one of the most powerful rulers of Egypt, and he thought that his fame would last forever. However, for nature, the power of the king was insignificant. It ravished everything built by the king and only left out the fragments of his statue. It symbolizes the imperishable and unstoppable force of nature, which can never be tamed by human beings and is inevitable.
Shelley has also portrayed nature as mightier than the world-famous ruler. The body of the statue was turned into dust, and its face was partially sunken and shattered. Though the entire civilization and the kingdom built by Ozymandias was wiped out, nature remains stable. It stands as a gentle reminder to humans that the only thing that can withstand time is nature. Also, humans can never be masters of nature as it reclaims everything in the world over time, let it be the ‘king of kings’ or his wish to last forever.
Shelley’s imagery as well depicts the boundlessness of nature. He represents the vast sandy deserts in the most powerful way possible. For Shelley, nature also works at its free-will. It is depicted in his description of the Westwind in ‘Ode to the Westwind.’ Similarly, in ‘Ozymandias,’ nature continues to do its will and does not care about how powerful Ozymandias was.
Ephemeral nature of power and fame
The poem situates itself by describing the nature of power and fame. Shelley, in his poem ‘Ozymandias,’ portrays the ruins of a broken statue found in a desert. The statue belonged to a mighty ruler named Ozymandias, who described himself as the ‘king of kings.’ But unlike the glory and power he experienced during his life, everything he had established and his honor is devastated with time. All that remains is the statue from the desert that only has two massive stone legs, without a body, and a head half-buried in the sand. The pedestal of the statue also has a boastful inscription on it, which states: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Ironically, nothing remains except the statue—neither the power of Ozymandias nor his civilization. Though Ozymandias believed that he would be commemorated forever as clearly suggested in the inscription, the wrecked statue elucidates the futility of his pride, and it stands as a representation of the ephemeral nature of power. Shelley’s belief in the fall of tyranny is well established with the metaphor of the broken statue.
The poem explicitly states that the power of rulers will be ravished over time, like in the case of Ozymandias. The traveler in the poem describes that nothing endures beside the statue. The place surrounding the statue has turned into an empty desert filled with sand. Everything that Ozymandias had conquered and created to leave his legacy has been ravaged. Even the inscription on the pedestal that glorifies Ozymandias brings pity to the onlooker. It is due to the devastating state of the statue. It reminds every onlooker that power and fame are transient. Every form of tyranny- political or cultural – will turn into dust over time. By setting an example of a real ruler from history, Shelley depicts how power is unstable and short-lived.
The Potential of Art
Shelley’s poem ‘Ozymandias’ revolves around the description of a statue seen by a traveler in an empty desert. Although the King’s statue was erected to represent his glory, everything he established gets lost in oblivion. The inscription on the pedestal of the statue, which boastfully commands onlookers to ‘Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair,’ turns ironic as it now represents the ruin of a kingdom rather than its glory. There are no works left to examine the magnificence of the ruler. The only thing that surpassed time is art. Only the statue that was skillfully created and the words on the pedestal survived over time. Shelley has very ironically used the statue, which is supposed to represent the king’s power, to glorify art.
Shelley also evidently states that art is the only entity that can preserve the memory of humans. Although the statue is damaged and shattered, the residues of the statue remain. People only come to know about Ozymandias and his personality through the work of art. Everything else has perished. If the sculptor had not made the statue, the history and features of the king might have been long lost. Similarly, Shelley’s poem will also let people know about the old Egyptian king.
Shelley also uses the poem to appreciate the mastery of the artist, who was able to create a masterpiece that truly captures the king’s attitudes and glory. The statue stands out as a model of skillful artistry. According to the speaker, the sculptor who created the statue has good knowledge of the king’s emotions and portrayed it very efficiently in the statue. The frown, wrinkled lip and sneer match Ozymandias’ passions and stand as a representation of his pride and tyranny. It also demonstrates how art retains memories about people and their features even long after their death.
Furthermore, the poem demonstrates how a good work of art inspires other artists. Many writers have been inspired due to elegant artifacts of the past, and it has produced several memorable artworks. Shelley came to know about the statue from the works of the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus who described the inscription on the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II’s statue. Also, the lost statue was recovered and decided to be preserved in the British museum during Shelley’s time. The statue and the details provided by Siculus inspired Shelley, and it resulted in the creation of yet another masterpiece, that is, ‘Ozymandias.’
The poem ‘Ozymandias’ by P.B. Shelley stands out as one of his remarkable works. The poem is well written and has gained much attention from the critics due to its distinct structure, historical significance, and themes.