Percy Shelly the author of the sonnet Ozymandias, is an infamous poet known for his many politically radical poems denunciating institutional religion, aristocracy, and monarchy. The poem Ozymandias can be said to be one of Shelly’ most famous and most anthologized oeuvres. This poem has, and continues to make great scholars and all who reads it question its true meanings and Shelly’s intentions. Shelly did not only write this poem so that the readers would see its irony in that the only thing that is left of this great ruler named Ozymandias, who claimed himself to be the “king of kings” and boasts of his great works, is a tattered and weathered sculpture of his head and legs, lying in the long lost deserts of Egypt. I feel that this is a
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They are saying that, although the sculpture itself is lifeless, the stern and powerful looking facial features upon it, show the sculptors views of the pharaohs passions in which he mocked, still remain and have survived longer than Ramses II and his empire. Although it’s Ozymandias’s intense emotions that “survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things.” Shelley attests, the sculptor survives as well, or parts of him do in line 8 where it says “the hand that mocked” the king’s passions “and the heart that fed.” Basically saying that its the sculptors interpretation of the kings face and passions that is left.The artist mocked Ozymandias by depicting him, in a way that the ruler could not himself perceive. This makes it apparent that the only thing that survived the passage of time is the crumbling art of the sculpture and the sculptors interpretation of the king. And if the art created by this sculptor didn't survive then would we even know of this so claimed “King of Kings” and his so called great works? Furthermore, the sculptor himself gets attention and praise that used to be deserved by the king, for all that Ozymandias achieved has now withered into almost nothing, while the sculpture has lasted long enough to make it into poetry. In a way, the artist has become more powerful than the king. As time progresses people die, empires come and go, rulers and beliefs change, but art and literature have a way of being somewhat capable of lasting longer to tell their stories of the
They are saying that, although the sculpture itself is lifeless, the stern and powerful looking facial features upon it, show the sculptors views of the pharaohs passions in which he mocked, still remain and have survived longer than Ramses II and his empire. Although it’s Ozymandias’s intense emotions that “survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things.” Shelley attests, the sculptor survives as well, or parts of him do in line 8 where it says “the hand that mocked” the king’s passions “and the heart that fed.” Basically saying that its the sculptors interpretation of the kings face and passions that is left.The artist mocked Ozymandias by depicting him, in a way that the ruler could not himself perceive. This makes it apparent that the only thing that survived the passage of time is the crumbling art of the sculpture and the sculptors interpretation of the king. And if the art created by this sculptor didn't survive then would we even know of this so claimed “King of Kings” and his so called great works? Furthermore, the sculptor himself gets attention and praise that used to be deserved by the king, for all that Ozymandias achieved has now withered into almost nothing, while the sculpture has lasted long enough to make it into poetry. In a way, the artist has become more powerful than the king. As time progresses people die, empires come and go, rulers and beliefs change, but art and literature have a way of being somewhat capable of lasting longer to tell their stories of the