Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley poem summary, explanation, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

  BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry (Detailed)

1.7. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley 

“Ozymandias” is one of the most famous poems of the Romantic era and it has eventually become Shelley’s most well-known work. Shelley’s this poem was published on January 11, 1818, in the weekly paper The Examiner. and the following year republished in 1819 in his collection Rosalind and Helen.

Poem:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

Poem Summary: 

The poet met a traveler who came from a remote land. He told the poet that he saw the remains of a statue in the desert. Two huge legs made of stone stood and the remaining part of the statue – the upper body was missing.

Another part of the statue, the face lay on the sand nearby. It was damaged and broken into pieces. The shattered head denotes that the whole statue is destroyed. But we don’t really know what exactly happened to that statue. It’s perhaps just the natural process of decay with time.

But the next line shifts the attention from the statue to the sculptor who created it. The traveller admires that the artist understood and felt (read) his subject’s (the man in the statue) passions and emotions very well. That is why he could draw the face so perfectly that it is still visible.

The face of the statue had expressions of displeasure and a taunting smile. The wrinkles and lines of the face were also there. The poet says that the sculptor who had made the statue had read the expressions on the Egyptian king Ramesses’s face very well as he was able to copy them onto his statue so accurately.

The traveller quotes the words written on its pedestal. The inscription declares the name of the man. It’s Ozymandias. He also regarded himself as the ‘King of Kings’. The ruler addresses others who think themselves powerful (Mighty) to look at his works to get their illusion shattered (despair).

These expressions continued to exist even after the king’s death through this lifeless statue. The sculptor’s hands copied the king’s ruthless expressions and mocked at them while the king’s stone heart brought out these expressions on his face.

Here Ozymandias is giving a warning to the other kings and rulers not to hope for much greatness, as they can never cross his achievements. That certainly gives an impression of his proud and commanding nature. But ironical enough, his own statue is now grounded by the great force of nature.