Poem -Ozymandias (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Notes
Poem is a Sonnet is a fourteen- line poem. Poet arranges them in a poetic structure as
below:
A set of 8 lines called Octave as an opening which presents a conflict or dilemma.
A set of 6 lines called Sestet that offers a resolution to the conflict introduced in the
octave.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said...
The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a
traveller that comes from an "antique land." ‘antique’ means old or ancient used
metaphorically.
We're not sure about this traveller. He could be a native of this "antique" land, or
just a tourist returning from his latest trip.The traveller is said to be a Greek
Historian-Diodorus Siculus.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies…
Here the traveller begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs
that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert.
Those legs are huge ("vast") and "trunkless." "Trunkless" means "without a torso," so
it's a pair of legs with no body.
Visage" means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head
belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like
the whole statue, "shatter'd."
This signifies the passing time and how with time things once magnificent crumbles
to nothingness.
whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
The traveler now gives a fuller description of the "shatter'd visage" lying in the sand.
As it turns out, the "visage" (or face) isn't completely "shatter'd" because one can
still see a "frown," a "wrinkled lip," and a "sneer’ which displayed his contemptuous,
condescending attitude towards his subject.
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Here the poet appreciates the skills of the sculptor. He personifies the expressions
on the visage and says that they give us an idea on how adept the sculptor was.
"Read" here means ‘understood’/’observed’ well. The sculptor was skillful and adept
because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly the facial features and
"passions" of our angry, arrogant king.
"Tell" is a cool word. The statue doesn't literally speak, but the frown and sneer are
so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking, telling us
how great the sculptor.
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed
The poem now tells us more about the "passions" of the face depicted on the
statue.Strangely, the "passions" still survive because they are "stamp'd on these
lifeless things." The "lifeless things" are the fragments of the statue in the desert.
"Stamp'd" doesn't refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which
the sculptor engraved the "frown" and "sneer" on his statue's face.
The passions not only "survive"; they have also outlived both the sculptor ("the hand
that mock'd") and the king (the heart) depicted by the statue.
Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called
"lifeless things," the sculptor is dead, and so is the statue's subject. The "passions"
though, still "survive."
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
The traveller tells us about an inscription at the foot of statue which finally reveals to
us whom this statue represents.
It is "Ozymandias," the figure named in the title. "Ozymandias" was one of several
Greek names for Ramses II of Egypt.
We are reminded again that "nothing" remains besides the head, legs, and pedestal;
as if we didn't know the statue has been destroyed, the traveller tells us again that it
is a "colossal wreck."
The very size of the statue – "colossal" – emphasizes the scope of Ozymandias's
ambitions as well(symbolism); it's almost as if because he thinks he's the "king of
kings" (10), he also has to build a really big statue.
Figures of Speech used in the Poem
Alliteration- cold command , sand stretch
Consonance- repeated consonant sounds – lone and level, boundless and bare
Synechdoche- A part to represent a whole -in verses- hand that mocked (sculptor) ;
heart that fed ( The King); wrinkled lip (King)
Hyperbole- exaggerated for effect - ‘antique’; ’colossal’
Personification-which imparts human characteristics to inanimate objects.-The idea
that the "shattered visage" is able to "tell" about the sculptor is personification.
Symbolism-The word "decay" suggests symbolism; although buildings and structures can be
said to decay, we normally think of the word in relation to bacterial decomposition of living
matter, so the "decay" of the statue represents the rotting of the King's corpse, which has
gone the way of all flesh.
IRONY-The statue, constructed on order of the King to symbolize himself, now lies wrecked
in the sands, symbolizing the King's own fall into obscurity. The irony lies in the fact that the
gigantic pride of the King has resulted in a gigantic fall.
‘ I am Ozymandias ……’ the proud declaration is followed by his downfall in the line –
‘Nothing beside remains….’
Two themes of the "Ozymandias" poems are the inevitable decline of rulers and
their hubris(excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence). The poet conveys the
transience of life and impermanence of all achievements through this poem.
