![]() ![]() The statue, symbolising the power and glory of the pharaoh, is crumbling. The might and majesty of king do not last longer and the thing that lasts is the art which keeps the memories alive of its subject. He declared himself the “King of Kings” but irony is that now his remains are broken and half sun in sand. Ozymandias tried to become greater than God. ![]() ![]() The themes of the futility of life, the fate of history, ravages of time are also associated with it. The poem stresses on the transience of regal glory and power. The main theme is introduced in the very beginning where Shelley’s speaker describes the “colossal Wreck” of Ozymandias half sunk in the lone desert. Force, power and authority die but the creativity in the form of art lives the time. Time is all powerful and witness to reveal that the kingdoms do not last glory dims and fades ultimately but the art survives the ravages of time. The poem also utilizes the themes of vainglory, the power of art, the decline of power, etc. Explore Shelley’s 1817 draft and the published version from The Examiner. The poem was published in The Examiner on 11 January 1818. In Shelley’s sonnet, the “traveller from an antique land” is the historian Siculus. They challenged one another to write a sonnet out of it. If any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work. They both a chose passage from Diodorus Siculus’s book Bibliotheca historica that contained the inscription: In 1817, Horace Smith spent his Christmas at Shelley’s house. In Shelley’s literary cycle, the members would challenge each other to write poems about a common subject. One of Shelly and the other of his friend Horace Smith. It was written as part of contest and so there are two poems on the same common theme. There is an interesting story behind the composition of the poem. 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, Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose literary career was marked with controversy due to his views on religion, atheism, socialism, and free love, is known as a talented lyrical poet and one of the major figures of English romanticism. In 1818, Shelly left for Italy he drowned in the Bay of Spezia in 1822. Shelly came under the influence of revolutionary ideas of the English philosopher Willaim Godwin, whose daughter, Mary Godwin he ultimately married. Percy Bysshe Shelly was educated at Eton and then sent to Oxford. It was first published in 1818 in The Examiner of London under Shelley’s pen name, “Gilrastes.”. The poem is a sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelly, an English poet. Click here for Ozymandias summary, meanings and questions ![]()
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