Ozymandias poem pdf
Ask us. Near them, on the sand, 4 Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 5 And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 6 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 7 Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 8 The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 9 And on the pedestal, these words appear: 10 My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 11 Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Round the decay 13 Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 14 The lone and level sands stretch far away. Cite This Page. Ozymandias Full Text. Lines It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed.
Saving guides requires a free LitCharts account. Already have an account? Sign in Continue. Complete your free account to save guides. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy bysshe shelley ozymandias analysis summary
Nothing does: all things must pass. We despair now not at the might of his empire, but at the fact that such a mighty empire — even the mightiest of all — is destined to crumble to dust. Over a century before T. Shelley wrote the poem in , not long after the British Museum announced that it had acquired a fragment of a statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II his head and torso, to be exact.
The supposed eternal strength and power of the once-great monarch who was Ozymandias has been reduced to nothing at all. Ozymandias may have once created a great and powerful empire, but that has long since passed from the world. It is gone now. The poem has come to an end, but one last point worthy of note is that we have returned to this image of the sand.
And something that is also interesting about sand is its association with time. It is through the sands of time that we all wade, and the sands of time were not kind to the statue or legacy of Ozymandias. He may have accomplished many great things during his reign and life, but those things are nothing now. They are wiped clean by the eternal sands that lay bare and boundless in every direction.
And with that final image and note, we have reached the conclusion of our in-depth Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley analysis. When it comes to the various Ozymandias themes on display, we can quite easily ascertain them by reading the poem as it is not a particularly complex poem. While the text does effectively serve as a simple description, the feelings that said description evokes in the reader are something that needs to be kept in mind and reflected upon to ensure that an adequate understanding is reached.
The poem, as has been explored in the Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley analysis above, shows us a statue and the desolation that can be found around it. We are given a series of grand descriptions of this destroyed statue followed by a self-aggrandizing statement from the monarch who was immortalized in that statue. However, that is then juxtaposed against the utter nothingness that surrounds the statue.
The supposed greatness of the statue and, by extension, the man after whom the statue was sculpted, has fallen away. There is no longer any grand power behind the man who was Ozymandias. His empire has fallen away and even the statue that was meant to remain long after he died has broken apart. The power that Ozymandias once possessed has been reduced to nothing because of the endless march of the sands of time.
His power was temporary or even illusionary. Did it ever even exist?
Ozymandias: The best Ozymandias study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
He may have once been great, but no one remembers his rule. We only know about it because of history books. And many do not read the history books. So, his so-called accomplishments have been washed away. And that is the central Ozymandias meaning. The accomplishments of humans, especially those who think of themselves as great and grand figures, will eventually be forgotten.
Our toils, goals, achievements, and everything else will eventually vanish. While some small number of people continue to be remembered, such as ancient Greek philosophers or great poets from antiquity, there are only a handful, and that handful of people will also eventually be forgotten. Time continues to march on. Some poems have stories behind them.
In the case of Ozymandias , this is very much the case. The poem was written in after Percy Bysshe Shelley and his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith decided to have a poetry contest with one another.
Ozymandias analysis
The idea for this contest was that it would be about the exact same topic. Both of these poems would be about Ozymandias or Rameses II. The general theme of these two poems, which are both called Ozymandias , has to do with the impermanence of power and the rule of tyrannical leaders. However, I have found that a story like this can help bring a poem to life.
When I used to tell this story to my students, it gave them a different kind of interest in the poem. Knowing these kinds of small, if technically unimportant, details can go a long way to helping someone engage with a piece of work. This poem is generally considered to be one of the best from the English Romantic period, and a poem that is immensely worthy of our time and attention.
In this article, we performed an Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley analysis, alongside a discussion of some of the general themes and ideas of the poem, a biography of the poet in question, and a few extra details that help bring it back down to earth.
Percy bysshe shelley ozymandias analysis
Hopefully, this analysis has aided you in your understanding of the poem, but perhaps you have some of your own interpretations, and they are also worth exploring and discussing. This is a poem that forms part of the tradition of English Romanticism. The poem is technically a sonnet, although it uses an unusual rhyme scheme.
The poem is focused on an understanding of power and how time erodes all of the so-called accomplishments of great rulers. The poem can be seen as a dark take on the realities of the world, but it has resonated with many over the years to become one of the best-known examples of a Romantic poem.
Percy bysshe shelley ozymandias analysis pdf
He was an English poet and philosopher. He concludes the main idea of the poem is the transient nature of power , the end of tyranny, and the ravages of times. 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;.