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Ozymandias to express to us that possessions
do not mean immortality. He used very strong
imagery and irony to get his point across
throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and
ironic pictures in our minds, Shelley was trying to
explain that no one lives forever, and nor do their
possessions.
Shelley expresses this poem’s moral through a
vivid and ironic picture. A shattered stone statue
with only the legs and head remaining, standing
in the desert, the face is proud and arrogant,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions
read(lines, 4-6). On the pedestal of the statue,
there are these words, ‘My name is
Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works,
ye Mighty, and despair!’(Lines, 10-11).
However, all that surrounds the statue is a desert.
This poem is written to express to us that
possessions don’t mean immortality, the king
who seemed to think that his kingdom would
remain under his statue’s haughty gaze forever,
ironically teaches us this through his epitaph.
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and
despair!(Line, 11) becomes good advice, though
in an opposite meaning than the king intended,
for it comes to mean that despite all the power
and might one acquires in the course of their life,
material possessions will not last forever. In the
end, the King’s works are nothing, and the
lines inscribed upon his statue are a sermon to
those who read it.
This is a poem about art. Shelley used imagery
and a very impressive ironical way to write this
poem. Basically, the poem is divided into two
parts; the first eight lines are describing an
ancient decayed sculpture seen by a traveler. The
last six lines however talk about the words on the
pedestal and the desolate surroundings; he
contrasts the great sculpture with the surrounding
emptiness, which gave a stronger feeling about
the poem.
In Shelley’s work, it described the visage sneer
of cold command(Line, 5). From this you can
imagine a very conceited, arrogant pharaoh,
commanding his people building this great vast
statue hoping his power would be immortality.
And when this great piece of work is done, he
demanded to put such words on the pedestal:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look
at my works, ye Mighty and despair!’(Lines,
10-11). Ozymandias seemed to think that as long
as his sculpture was there, his kingdom would
last forever. But according to this poem, after
hundreds and thousands of years, the only thing
left is sand and the rotting and decaying
sculpture. Shelley wrote, Nothing beside
remains(line, 12) after the words Look at my
works,(line, 11). This is really sarcastic because
the prior sentence was just talking about how
great and fabulous this sculpture was and how
the king thought about possessing his kingdom
forever this way. Then, the next sentence comes
with- Nothing beside remains(line, 12). Shelley
is trying to tell us something through this vivid
and ironic picture described in the poem, which is
no one lives forever, and nor do their
possessions.
In the poem, this pharaoh thought that even if he
past away, his kingdom, power and possessions
would still remain the same, and forever this
way. But in reality, it’s impossible. Like the
poem said, the king’s work became nothing, only
shattered statue with legs and head left, lying in
the desert. Shelley put a clear image in all our
minds when he talked about the power and
desires of this mighty king. All Ozymandias
wanted was immortality, which everyone in this
world, even today, would die for. Who knows,
maybe that was the key to the king’s impractical
dream.
Word Count: 619
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