U3_FT1.3: ‘Ozymandias!’
‘Ozymandias’ is a poem written by famed romantic era poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. As a poet, Shelley’s works were never truly recognized during his lifetime due to the extreme discomfort the generation had with his political radicalism, or his revolutionary ideology. It was only after his death that his works were further examined for the masterpieces they are and the way Shelley thought about revolutionary movements was finally revealed. The Romantic Era in England was a reaction to the stuffy, undemocratic, narrow-minded Enlightenment Era of the 1700s. Towards the end of the 1700s, people began to question the belief that their century was a ‘perfect era’ (as those intellectuals of the time called it) and the Romantic Era grew out of this backlash. Pioneers of the Romantic period, like Shelley, wanted to break away from the conventions of the Age of Enlightenment and make way for individuality and experimentation, an imperative ideology of the Romantic Era. Shelley magnified the importance and beauty of nature and love. This was mainly because of the industrial revolution, which had shifted life from the peaceful, serene countryside towards the chaotic cities, transforming man's natural order. Nature was not only appreciated for its visual beauty, but also revered for its ability to help the urban man find his true identity. While the poetry of the time is typified by lyrical ballads reflecting nature and beauty, revolutionary ideas are an underlying theme.
Ozymandias is an ode published by Shelley in 1818 and is considered Shelley’s most famous short poem, as well as the most anthologized. The form of the poem happens to be a sonnet, however the rhyming system is very complicated and therefore creates an intricate and unique read compared to most other sonnets rhymed I the traditional fashion. His beautiful imagery puts an image of a decayed or otherwise collapsed statue in the mind of the reader. “Vast and trunkless legs” depicts huge stone legs without the upper body attached, just the legs standing on the podium. “Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lie” tells of the head of the statue, laying half sunk into the sands of the desert and further “wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” describes the expression on this immense fallen head. He uses the expression of the statue to explain the characteristics of the ruler the statue is depicting, and by any means describes a ruthless and powerful ruler. On a more emotional or deeper level he says;
“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.”
This means that the characteristics of the man portrayed on the statue (ruthless and cold command) survive to Shelley’s day, during the revolution. He shows that these cold and mean characteristics belong to the ruler through the script on the pedestal;
“My name is Ozymandias, king of Kings:
Looks on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
This basically means that anyone that looks at this powerful statue should despair and praise their ruler, ‘Ozymandias’, the kings of kings. It just so happens, 'Ozymandias' is about Ramses II, the Egyptian pharaoh who also went by the name Ozymandias. Or more specifically, it's about the ruins of a statue of this great king. In this sense, Shelley knows that the tyrannical and cruel passions of Ozymandias live on in others around in his day, or more specifically in the Romantic Era.
Therefore, the true message is an ironic one, that is, that nothing remains. All that is left of Ramses supposed great empire is a decaying and shattered statue. The engraving on the pedestal no longer applies, because his works are vanished and destroyed, he is no longer the “King of Kings”.
I truly believe this sonnet was meant to be served as a warning to the rich and powerful rulers in the Romantic Era, those driven by the riches of the Industrial Era and those oppressors in the French Revolution. The message is clear to me, one who rules with the traits of cold command and oppression like Ozymandias will never be liable to a great and thriving kingdom, and it will fall from under them, as it did to Ozymandias. For even as great and powerful these tyrants say they are there rule will not last, they will be abandoned just like the statue was by the kingdom that surrounded it;
“Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”