Ozymandias By: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dramatic SituationWho: the speaker, the traveler, the sculptor, and ozymandias.

What: A shattered statue, and “the lone and level sands” (Shelley 14).

When: The speaker's time is uncertain, the stranger talks about recent travels, and ozymandias is ancient.

Where: An unknown location where the speaker and the stranger talk, the desert.

Why: did ozymandias greatness fade?

How: Time.

Point Of View

The point of view the poem uses is first person.

In the beginning of the poem we have speaker that introduces a traveler and from then on the traveler narrates the poem.

We do not know much about the traveler because they do not give background about him. Most of the poem is about the traveler describing the statue lying in the desert.

Subject and ThemeThe subject of the poem is the statue of Ozymandias. The theme of the poem is greatness. The theme speaks to greatness as being temporary, if you define greatness as possessing and owning many things. True Greatness would last forever and cannot be destroyed. This pharaoh was once great enough for a statue to be made of him but just like himself his statue is now broken down. The inscription on the statue, “ ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!’ ” (Shelley 10-11), shows his works as a king could have once been great but now they mean nothing. Just like the civilization and culture he ruled over, the greatness of this man is decayed.

Literal meaningThis play describes a meeting between the speaker, and a traveler who tells

the speaker of the statue of Ozymandias he found in the desert. Since Ozymandias was a pharaoh the desert is most likely located in egypt.

Analysis of any symbolic/implied meaning

This poem makes an ironic statement about the nature of greatness, and how temporary it can be. The inscription on the base of the shattered statue, “‘My name is ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works ye mighty and despair!’” (shelley 11-12), contrast strongly with the state of the statute and its surroundings. This contrast highlights the fact that the greatness referenced by the inscription has since faded away. The broken statue and empty desert are used to symbolize how far greatness can fade. This is particularly effective as the evidence the inscription gives for the greatness of its subject is the magnificence of his surrounding works, now having fallen to time and the desert.

ToneThe tone of this is sarcastic and ironic. Ozymandias wanted to be looked at as great, but what he did is not considered as that anymore. Shelley used the words “shattered” (Shelley 4), “half sunk” (Shelley 4), “decay” (Shelley 12) to show that the statue is meaningless and that the greatness that Ozymandias wanted was foolish.

Cultural/Historical Context Ozymandias is the Greek name for Ramesses II. He was the pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. He lived to be 96 years old, and had over 200 wives, and over a hundred children. Ramesses II was highly important in the history of Egypt. They thought of him as Ramesses the Great.

Grammar/Meaning Clarity/Unfamiliar TermsThis poem depicts how over time greatness can only be defined on history and stories.

This weathered statue has a description about a civilization that a “king of kings” used to rule, and ruled it well, accordingly. This civilization is now miles of level sand and does not exist anymore.

Visage: The surface of an object subjected to view.

Important images/Figures of Speech/Key ConceptsThe imagery of destruction that this poem describes is linked to how, over time,

everything that is considered great gets destroyed. The statue itself is destroyed from erosion, the civilization it was built from is now gone, and the poem constantly reminds its readers that there is destruction everywhere in this desolate, remote land.

Ozymandias uses a lot of irony throughout its fourteen lines. The statue talks about the “king of kings” works, but there is nothing but sand and ruins around it. This “colossal wreck” that represents a “great” man is in a desolate area only surrounded by level sands that have no end.

Greatness does not last forever and is based on what the majority rule believes to be true. Ozymandias is only a story now, based on what that civilization thought at the time.

Structure/Type/Category of PoemThis poem was a sonnet. It is considered a sonnet because it has 14 lines with 10 syllables each, using iambic pentameter. He used the sonnet because he used the 14 lines to write what the traveler needed to say, and nothing more. It does not leave you with any conclusion or thoughts from the speaker. I think that he did this on person because Shelly wanted us to draw up our own conclusion after we listened to what the traveller said about the statue. Usually sonnets are used for love poems and this was not Shelley intent. I am unsure of exactly why he chose to use a sonnet to write this, but I think that as the tone of this poem is ironic, he added another level of it. Most people are expecting something lovey when they see it is a sonnet, but he starts of with irony by using a sonnet for something other than what people expected.

ProsodyThis poem is a sonnet. The poem is odd to most sonnets as in it is not only Petrarchan (Sonnet made of 8 lines followed by 6 lines) but it is also mixed with Shakespearean style (14 lines of 3 quatrains and a couplet). The poem is structured as Petrarchan style because it starts with 8 lines introducing followed by 6 lines resolving. The poem also is not your usual iambic pentameter (unstressed followed by stressed syllables). It actually has reverses of iamb which is trochees (stressed followed by unstressed). Lines have each trochee and iambic pentameter and therefore separates itself from other sonnets.

Shakespearean start.

Connection To Current EventsA connection to a current event would be Jeremy Lin. Although he was never great at basketball his greatness was rising for a few weeks and then he lost it like Ozymandias lost his.

People were thinking he would help turn the Knicks around in that one week. They were saying it was, “Linsanity”.

Now no one talks about Lin and he is never in the spotlight.