in osimandius by percy shelley the
narrator of the poem
meets a traveler who tells him about a
statue that he saw when he was in a
desert
the traveler first noticed two huge
stone legs standing without a body
near the legs on the sand and partially
sunk into the ground
was the head of the statue on its face
despite being shattered and cracked was
a nasty
arrogant look the sculptor who made the
statue made it look very lifelike
at the foot of the statue was an
engraving which read my name is
ozymandias king of
kings look on my works you mighty and
despair
clearly the statue had once stood in the
midst of a vast and impressive empire
but that's the irony by the time the
traveller sees the statue
not only is it crumbled and broken but
it's isolated and in the middle of the
lonely desert
let me just point out this video is a
quick recap of the poem to learn more
watch my full analysis which i'll link
at the end
percy shelly was one of the romantic
poets as were william blake who wrote
london
and william wordsworth who wrote extract
from the prelude romantic poetry was a
poetic movement of the late 18th and
early 19th centuries
there are many conventions to romantic
poetry but the one which is key for
ozymandias
is that the romantic poets disliked
imposed control
by those in power shelley had a great
dislike of the monarchy
notably king george iii who was king
when the poem was written
and also a dislike of religion both were
key themes in shelley's writings
for example in 1811 he published
poetical essay on the existing state of
things where he criticized the monarchy
attacking the cold advisors of yet
colder kings
in a line which reminds us of the cold
command of ozymandias
shelley was also very anti-religion
publishing the necessity of atheism
which resulted in him being thrown out
of oxford university
in ozymandias we can see criticism of
monarchy ozymandias was an egyptian
monarch after all
and criticism of religion which we'll
explore in a second
the overlying message of the poem is
simple you think you are all powerful
and supreme
but power is transitory it doesn't last
forever
it changes over time in terms of form
ozymandias
is a sonnet a sonnet is a form of love
poetry which originated in 13th century
italy but is best known with reference
to the 14th century poet
petrarch a petrarchan sonnet follows the
conventions seen here on the left
in the 16th century we have the
emergence of what would become known as
the shakespearean sonnet
which follows the convention seen here
on the right
ozymandias then is definitely a sonnet
and in simple terms we can say that
shelley used the sonnet form
to highlight how ozymandias is in love
with himself
in love with his delusional sense of
power and supremacy
but when we look closely at the poem we
see that it does not fit neatly
into either of these sonnet forms many
see elements of the petrarchan sonnet in
ozimandius
there are 14 lines structured as a group
of eight lines the octave which presents
details about the broken statue
and a group of six lines the sestet
which focus on the pedestal
and its now ironic message of complete
power however
the opening rhyme scheme abab fits the
shakespearean sonnet model
not the patriarchal model and then we
have the continuing rhyme scheme
a c d c e d e f e
f which doesn't follow either sonnet
form so whether you would choose to say
the sonic moves from a petrarchan to a
shakespearean to a new form
or would simply summarize and say that
the poem is a sonnet
but one which is continually adapting
and changing
lacking consistency with the initial
rhyme scheme being replaced with
something new
the question is why well remember what i
said about the poem
power is transitory it doesn't last
forever it changes over time
and in the poem the rhyme scheme is
transitory
it changes over time as the poem
progresses here we see
form reflecting content to represent how
human power
despite those who own it feeling
invincible is open to change
it's perhaps a warning to king george
iii that despite his powerful position
at the time the poem was written
his own power was transitory it wouldn't
last forever
it would change over time in my more
detailed video analysis of this poem
which i'll link at the end
i explore the similarities between the
historical figures of ozymandias and
king george iii
those similarities help us to guess that
the poem is a criticism of the king
in terms of language there are a couple
of interesting things to explore
there's one key example of biblical
language in the poem which helps us to
see shelley's criticism of religion
ozymandias self-appointed title on the
pedestal
is king of kings in the bible in 1
timothy 6 15
the title king of kings is given to god
so what can we say about this
firstly that ozymandia sees himself as
god-like in his power
and secondly that perhaps the whole poem
can be read not as a criticism of some
ancient egyptian monarch
but of the church and organized religion
that shelley is saying the power of the
church
will one day crumble like the statue and
let's look at those words again
king of kings notice the hard
alliterative
k sound there we see it again in cold
command poets often use the k
sound to create an aggressive harsh tone
and here we can see this alliteration
indicates the cruelty of ozymandias
he was a powerful ruler who is presented
as aggressive and oppressive
clearly the poem is criticizing this
kind of leader and again we draw
parallels with shelley's dislike of
imposed control
by those in power so shelley's poem
presents a cruel
ruler who thought he was all-powerful
but we learned that his power was
transitory it didn't last forever the
situation changed over time
shelley's poem can be read as a message
about human power in general
or as a direct criticism of monarchy and
religion so which poems compare well
with ozymandias
when in terms of misguided notions of
human power
extract from the prelude my last duchess
kamikaze
and tissue are the most obvious picks
but which other poems would you compare
it with and why
put your comments in the comment section
for more on this poem pick up a copy of
mr bruff's guide to power and conflict
poetry
available exclusively in ebook form and
linked in the description
if you like this shorter style of
analysis video do give it a thumbs up
and i'll make some more
but remember this video isn't intended
to tell you everything you need to know
about the poem
it's a recap for the full lesson check
out the video linked here
on the screen