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“Nothing besides remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck.”
-PB Shelley
Introduction
Originally published - 11 January 1818
Author - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Read online - "Ozymandias (Shelley)"
Period - Romanticism
Form - Sonnet
Meter - Loose iambic pentameter
Rhyme scheme - ABABA CDCEDEFEF
Percy Bysshe Shelley seizes the power of verse and poetry to not only communicate feelings and emotions, but in addition to share, stimulate and promote personal belief systems and ideology.
The destruction or void one feels in contemplating Ozymandias and his once powerful realm, his mighty kingdom emerges through Shelley's symbolism and imagery. Here Imagery is portrayal utilizing the five senses of sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell.
In "Ozymandias," we are left with pictures of brokenness and void. We can imagine the following:
"Two vast and trunk less legs of stone
Stand in the desert."
Shelley’s famous sonnet "Ozymandias" is generally perceived as a rumination on the role of craftsmanship and art; be that as it may, but when juxtaposed with his "A Defense of Poetry" and A Philosophical View of Reform, "Ozymandias" turns into a model exemplary of the symbolic work structure.
Combining components of both the Shakespearean and the Petrarchan sonnet customs, Shelley presents for his readers how one should look at and examine preexisting structures and proposes individual agency as an option in contrast to traditional notions of power.
The words that Ozymandias had cut on his sculpture are now ironic. He approaches the "mighty" to look at his works and depression. He implies for them to see his huge city, his militaries, his wealth and his abundance and get in head that they can't challenge him.
All things considered, the "Mighty" presently should surrender on the grounds that such "great" works failed miserably to be nothing but desert sand.
Shelley was a political extremist in his time (in spite of the fact that his feelings would not appear as revolutionary to us), and he upheld the standards of the French Revolution.
The picture of Ozymandias' cut off head and the "level sands," addressing the powers of leveling (a word for uniformity), are symbols and images that caution the powerful of Shelley's day that they also will wind up as nothing.
Thematic Insight into the Poem
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“The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings”
-PB Shelley
The first and second lines are likewise a prologue to the way that the speaker is reviewing for us what he had heard from "a traveler from an ancient land" (1), which illuminates the reader that it is upon the speaker's agency to transfer the story precisely, or inaccurately, contingent on what he picks.
The speaker's distinguishing proof of the traveler as being from an "ancient land" presents the theme of ancient history in this sonnet, and thus, its lack of power.
In spite of the fact that the speaker is apparently reciting what he had heard from the traveler, the traveler has no agency over his own story, as the narrator is the one retelling it— the traveler let completely lose control, or power, over his own story.
Psychological Analysis
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One could absolutely feel disrupted and unsettled in the wake of perusing Shelley's poem. Essentially a record of a visit to the burial chamber of Ramses II (the Ozymandias immortalized in the sonnet), the voyager tells the narrator that all that survives from this once-incredible king and the civilization he assembled is a messed up sculpture in the desert.
Just the sculpture's legs stay upstanding. On its platform, an engraving, once intended to threaten, is currently a horrid token of the force that time employs over all things: "My name is Ozymandias, ruler of lords:/Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Despite the significance of his works and tremendousness of his empire, time appears to have taunted the lord, as did the artist who caught his frown and scoff in the presently demolished stone monument.
Through this work, Shelley implies the fleetingness of all man-made things. Indeed, even craftsmanship and language don't survive the attacks of time, which is the lone genuine power. Offering no encouraging statements or words of hope, the sonnet closes unexpectedly, leaving its reader with only more questions.
The Bottom Line
Readers will react contrastingly to this sonnet, however one normal response is to experience an inclination of destruction and a feeling of desolation. One may likewise leave away with a feeling of the worthlessness of the sort of tyrannous significance Ozymandias sought after.
The depth of this short poem blew my mind and took my breath away. And having read it now, I understand how much depth and thoughts of darkness went into every aspect of this piece. And the imagery still hits me because it ends abruptly. It’s worth the read.
My ratings for the poem - 4 on 5
Get your copy from Amazon - Ozymandias
Written By - Prakriti Chaudhary
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