Ozymandias

• 3 quotes on ozymandias

  • ”half sunk shattered visage”
  • ” nothing beside remains”
  • " lone and level sands"
• "lone and level sands"

  • suggests a metaphorical levelling: no matter who superior in life, in death we are all equal and have "nothing"
  • futility of men's aspirations for dominance
  • Eventually all will fall to dust and the fruitless actions will be forgotten
  •  SH is making a stand against the greed and avarice of society, trying to show that ultimately, we will not prevail
  • highlighting the myth of permanence and suggesting that everything, even the most imposing buildings and monuments, = eventually fall as a warning to misanthropics like ozy
• "wrinkled lip" / "cold command"

  • wrinkled= power of ozy = transient despite the statue was made during his ruling= was already posing power at beginning = important = shows humans shouldn't cling onto power
  • sneer=callous misanthropy of ozy = was clearly a "cold" and cruel tyrant who "sneer[ed]" at inferiors = highlighting hubris and blinkered idea of stability of his own superiority
• "half sunk, a shattered visage lies"

  • visage= lit= shattered, fractured, fragmemented= physical fragility
  • meta= power of ozy = destablised and fractured by superior power of time
  • symb= hubristic tyrants power will always be shattered: power is fragile and its destruction is inevitable
• Shelly, who as a romantic poet, wanted to denounce the superiority of oppressive institutions , uses the image of shattered visage to expose the foolishness of hubristic leaders and inevitability of their destruction
• theme of Ozymandias:

  • power
  • human/ nature
• ozy comparison:

  • london
  • MLD
  • prelude
  • tissue
• summary of ozymandias:

  • a traveller sees a statue of ozymandias sinking in the sand
  • ozy was a hubristic and arrogant man
  • eventually sand engulfs his statue showing his transient human power and natures ephermal power