Ozymandias

Ozymandias

                       By P. B. Shelley

Analysis :

·      The poem ‘Ozymandias’ is composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a prominent poet of Romantic Era of English literature.

·      The poem is composed in form of a sonnet, a verse of 14 lines.

·      It is strictly composed under the style of Petrarchan sonnet, having been divided into 2 stanzas – the first being an octave, a poem of 8 lines and the second being a sestet, a stanza of 6 lines.

·      Shelley follows the mixed rhyming scheme : ABABACDCEDEFEF

·      The tone of the poem is ironical and philosophical.

·      The poem is written in narrative style as it tells the story which begins from the narrator to a traveller, then to a sculptor.

·      The poem stresses upon the impermanence of power teaching that no matter how powerful a ruler is, time destroys everything. It proclaims that Nature outlasts human achievements.

·      The poem gives the message that the monuments and statues built to gain fame and glory are temporary. It teaches that pride leads to downfall. Time is the ultimate force.

 

Line by Line Explanation

 Lines 1-8

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert.. 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,

Explanation : 

The narrator begins by saying that once, he met a traveller who had travelled a very old (ancient) country. Then, the traveller started telling his experience in that ancient land. He told that he had seen two huge stone legs broken from a statue. The legs were standing shattered, uncared and alone in the sand of a desert area. But the rest of the body, the trunk was missing. Nearby lies the broken face of the statue. It was half buried in the sand. Then, the traveller described the stone face which was bearing a frown. The lips were wrinkled as the face had the expression of hatred due to arrogance, pride, and cruelty and insensitive authority. The traveller appreciated the sculptor who had very well understood the king’s personality and emotions before making his statue as well as copied those emotions on the stone face so lively. Even though the statue is broken, the emotions of pride, cruelty and authority were still visible on the shattered face of the statue. The sculptor’s hand seemed to mock the king’s arrogance and hateful expressions which the king had nourished in his heart when he was alive and exercising his authority without sensitivity and sensibility.

 

Lines 9 to 14

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;”

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away

Explanation : 

The traveller further told that there was an inscription engraved on the pedestal of the statue, which proved the arrogance of the ruler who got it written on the base of the statue that the statue was of Ozymandias, the most powerful king. He considered himself the supreme ruler of all other kings. He boasts that all other powerful rulers should look at his achievements and feel jealous and hopeless in comparison. However, nothing of his great works existed anymore as everything has been destroyed with the passage of time. Here the narrator seems to mock at the transience of human life and achievements. Only the remains of the huge broken statue were lying shattered in the desert sands and eating dust in an empty vast desert. The desert stretches endlessly in all directions, emphasising the emptiness and ruin and symbolising the ravages of time. The poet here, established the mighty rule of time and futility of the achievements of even the mightiest kings.

 

Themes

The poem highlights the impermanence of power stressing that no matter how powerful a ruler is, time destroys everything.

Pride and arrogance of kings only attract hatred. Ozymandias’s boast is mocked by his shattered statue.

It establishes the power of time and nature. Nature outlasts human achievements.

Art is more powerful than authority. The sculptor’s art survives longer than the king’s empire and statue.

Message

The poem teaches that the powerful empires, monuments, statues and other structures built to gain fame and glory are temporary. It also gives the lesson that pride leads to downfall. Time is the ultimate force that destroys everything and nothing remains behind after man’s life ends on this earth.