Ozymandias of Egypt
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
About the poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) has often been considered as one of the major English
Romantic writers who wrote both prose and verse during his short literary career. His great
prose essay ‘A Defence of Poetry’ (1821) is one of the important manifestos of the Romantic
Movement. Shelley was an influential poet of the nineteenth century, best known for his
works such as ‘Ozymandias’ (1818), ‘Ode to the West Wind’ (1819), ‘To a Skylark’ (1820),
and his philosophical poems like ‘Queen Mab’ (1813), and ‘The Mask of Anarchy’ (1819). In
his poems, Shelley successfully portrays the transience of tyranny and ephemerality of
autocracy through his use of classical myths and legends. For Shelley, poetry is an
important instrument of eradicating social injustices, customs and conventions to free
mankind from all sorts of tyranny and despotism. Shelley died in a boating accident on 8
July 1822 at the age of 29 when the boat capsized off the coast of Pisa.
-------
OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT
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;
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.”
Meanings of difficult words
Antique: very old; ancient
Shattered: broken into very small pieces
Visage: a person’s face
Frown: a serious facial expression that shows anger or displeasure
Wrinkled: (of face or facial feature) having small lines because of old age
Sneer: to smile or laugh with facial contortions that expresses scorn or contempt
Stamped: impressed a pattern or mark on a surface or object
Mocked: not real but intended to look or seem real
Despair: the complete loss or absence of hope
Colossal: extremely large or great
Wreck: to destroy or badly damage something
Summary
‘Ozymandias of Egypt’ is a sonnet composed by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
It appeared in his collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue with Other Poems, published
in 1819. Ozymandias was the Greek name for the pharaoh Rameses II, one of the most powerful
rulers of the ancient world. The poem begins with the boastful assertion of the king as he declares
himself as ‘King of Kings’. The narration of the poem is layered as it consists of Shelley’s ‘I’, the
traveller, and also the voice of Ozymandias. The speaker of the poem meets a traveller ‘from an
antique land’ who tells him about a shattered, ruined statue in the desert. He tells him that the
frown and ‘sneer of cold command’ on the statue’s face indicate the sculptor’s depiction of the
boastful and arrogant face of the tyrannical ruler it represents. The ruined statue of the king who
once proclaimed to be all powerful has turned to dust and his civilisation has been destroyed with
the passage of time.
In the poem, the gigantic statue of Ozymandias is used as a symbol of pride and political
oppression which are ephemeral in nature and against this the lasting permanence of art is
juxtaposed which is eternal. The emotions and passions of the king are successfully replicated by
the sculptor who could communicate the tyrant’s passion hidden beneath the ‘shattered visage’
through his art. The major theme of the poem is the ephemerality of power and permanence of
art. The poem seems to question the transient nature of human authority. The poem
demonstrates Shelley’s interest in the continuation of art and the eternal quality of poetry.
Referring to the sculptor, Shelley writes ‘the hand that mocked’ which examines the autonomy of
the artist who, although subservient to the king, displays a sense of artistic superiority by his
satirical representation of the despotic ruler.
Comprehension
A. Answer in one or two words.
1. Which king is referred to in the poem ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’?
2. What type of a poem is ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’?
3. Who is the speaker in the poem?
4. Who tells the poet about the shattered statue?
5. Name the collection of poetry in which ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’ got first published.
B. Answer in a few words.
1. What is the rhyme scheme ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’?
2. What is ironic about the inscription on the pedestal of Ozymandias’s statue?
3. What is the only thing remaining in the vast desert?
4. Who was Ozymandias?
5. What quality of Ozymandias does the narrator represent?
C. Answer briefly in your own words.
1. Write a brief note on the theme of ‘transience of power’ as discussed in the poem.
2. ‘the hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed’. Whose hand and heart has
the poet referred to in this line?
3. How does the poet describe the expression on Ozymandias’s face?
D. Answer in detail.
1. Bring out the central idea contained in the poem ‘Ozymandias of Egypt’ by P.B.
Shelly.
2. Identify the figures of speech in the poem.
