Analysis Of Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley seems to describe a story about a statue which is being told by a traveler to the narrator of the poem. From his description, the reader can determine that the statue was probably built by a vain ancient king to boast about his accomplishments. However, over the years this kingdom must have collapsed into ruins. The words used in this poem and the way the writing is gone about by its author deeply affect and create meaning and fluidity in the text. The narrator’s overall style, fortified by creative use of structure and punctuation, allows the story to stay comprehendible to the reader. The author writes using his distinct style as he alludes to the fall of Ozymandias. In the message on the statue …show more content…
It is significant that the only thing that actually takes place during the poem is the beginning, when the speaker remembers the traveler, which is outside of the quotation marks. The rest of the poem is the story that was told. It is also interesting that the part in lines 10-11, where the traveler quotes the words from the statue, is not also bound by quotation marks. Even though the traveler infers that he is quoting exactly what was written on the base, the author does not place quotation marks around the words. However, the absence of quotations in this location actually helps the entire story flow together, as there is not a pause before or after the quote. If this section had been inside quotation marks, it would have stood out more to the reader than the rest of the poem. Since this section lacks quotes, none of the parts of the story are more emphasized than others. The specifically placed quotation marks and lack of them where they could be seem to keep all the parts of the poem equal to one …show more content…
The seemingly subtle account of Ozymandias’s apparent fall from power seems to show the creative aspect of the author’s style; the fluidity of the poem stays preserved because of its excellently planned out structure; and the use and lack of quotation marks keep the storyline during the poem interesting. All of these work together to create a sense of balance throughout the poem because if the author had been inconsistent with his writing style, the poem could have become either overly complicated or too straightforward. The way it is written brings the perfect balance of the two into the work. The poem was written cleverly, concisely, and coherently. And the author of the poem via his creativity has accomplished this task quite