![]() This degree of uncertainty over its authenticity plays an important part in the simple but effective implementation of mystery to the story. ![]() The ancient lands of Ozymandias were transversed by a “traveler”, whose tale tells like a legend or myth. Shelley appeals to our mind’s sense of understanding and nebulous recollection through the positioning of the speaker to the statue of Ozymandias. The poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley seeks to substantiate this claim, by commenting on the cycle of human mortality, and mankind’s attempts to outlast our earthly limitations.įrom a technical standpoint Shelley frames this poem with notable renderings of eloquent language and rhetorical devices, which enhance his theme and create a memorable narrative from these simple beginnings. Truly our impacts and impressions are interred with us, or some mark on a dry erase board, with no lasting effects on the world to come. This work, on the forefront of a new philosophical notion, is not to gasconade the deeds of a king, but to excogitate the concept that precious time is fleeting. What greater hindrance is there present than that of time? Humanity’s cupidity to conquer mortality, in the same fashion that we have seemingly tamed the seas, changed the fates of our lives, and enhanced our reality through the convenience of machines, has failed us. The lone and level sands stretch far away. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,Īnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Furthermore, sonnets are usually associated with love and harmony, however ironically, the only love here was the self-love of Ozymandias.Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone The sonnet structure also gives it formality and ‘dignity’, as does the stately, rhythmic iambic pentameter construction of the lines. Actor Bryan Cranston recited the poem in promos for the show (see video above). The poem gained renewed popular attention in 2013 when “Ozymandias” was used as the title of an episode of TV’s Breaking Bad. Shelley chose to give a voice to the ‘nobody’, often at that time forgotten by literature. The traveller is an ordinary man, yet he is the one who tells the story, not the great king. It is also a comment on humility - or the lack of it. Shelley points out the power of nature, and its ability to destroy, a classic theme of Romanticism. The essence of the message is the hubris of a man who believed that he would be remembered forever. Signed “Glirastes”– meaning roughly a “preaching doormouse”–Shelley’s “Ozymandias” has become one of his most famous poems. ![]() ![]() It was also written in competition with Shelley’s friend Horace Smith, who produced his own “Ozymandias” sonnet and published it a month later. Shelley’s poem is thought to have been inspired by the news of the 1821 acquisition of a statue of Ramses II by the British Museum in London. Far from standing forever, even the most imposing of man’s creations wear away. ![]() Ramesses II, also called Ozymandias, as a symbol of the decline in time of personal possessions and power. This classic sonnet uses a decaying statue of ![]()
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