[22] Ozymandias
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:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley
|
Love poems are all very well, but my two favourite sonnets have got to be
Keats' "Chapman's Homer" and this one. Note the sheer perfection of the line
"look on my works ye mighty and despair", and the wonderful imagery in the
last line.
On a side note, this doesn't seem to fit into any of the traditional sonnet
forms, the rhyme scheme being ababa cdcdc efef, though structurally it
divides into the 8 and 6 of the Petrarchan pattern.
Ozymandias, incidentally, was Rameses II, who was survived by his pyramid if
nothing else. The poem itself was inspired by a shattered colossus in the
Ramesseum, his funeral temple, of which the EB says 'This temple is
identified with the "Tomb of Osymandias" (a corruption of Ramses II's
prenomen) described by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st
century BC' - an inscription on the statue's base read
I am Ozymandias, King of kings.
If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie,
let him surpass any of my works.
There's a nice writeup on 'The Real Ozymandias' at
<http://www.savagenet.com/oz/Oz/real.htm> which you are encouraged to read.
Biographical Note:
Shelley was, along with Byron and Keats, one of the major poets of the Later
Romantic period. They built upon the Early Romantic movement dominated by
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake. The Romantic movement produced, IMHO, some
of the finest poetry ever written in the English language, as poets embraced
the new ideals of freedom and individualism sweeping Europe, and thrilled to
the vibrant sense of change accompanying them. The poetic ideals of the time
are perhaps best expressed in Wordsworth's "Spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings".
Of the romantic movement, the EB has this to say:
As a term to cover the most distinctive writers who flourished in the last
years of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th, "Romantic" is
indispensable but also a little misleading: there was no self-styled
"Romantic movement" at the time, and the great writers of the period did not
call themselves Romantics.
and later
Poetry was regarded as conveying its own truth; sincerity was the criterion
by which it was to be judged. Provided the feeling behind it was genuine,
the resulting creation must be valuable.
And of Shelley himself:
Percy Bysshe (pronounced 'Bish') Shelley, English Romantic poet whose
passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually
channeled from overt actions into poems that rank with the greatest in the
English language.
[..]
Thus far, Shelley's literary career had been politically oriented. Queen
Mab, the early poems first published in 1964 as The Esdaile Notebook, Laon
and Cythna, and most of his prose works were devoted to reforming society;
and even Alastor, Rosalind and Helen, and the personal lyrics voiced the
concerns of an idealistic reformer who is disappointed or persecuted by an
unreceptive society. But in Italy, far from the daily irritations of
British politics, Shelley deepened his understanding of art and literature
and, unable to reshape the world to conform to his vision, he concentrated
on embodying his ideals within his poems. His aim became, as he wrote in
"Ode to the West Wind," to make his words "Ashes and sparks" as from "an
unextinguished hearth," thereby transforming subsequent generations and,
through them, the world. Later, as he became estranged from Mary Shelley,
he portrayed even love in terms of aspiration, rather than fulfillment:
"The desire of the moth for the star,/ Of the night for the morrow,/ The
devotion to something afar/ From the sphere of our sorrow."
-- EB
Criticism:
Shelley saw himself at once as poet and prophet, as the fine "Ode to the
West Wind" (1819) makes clear. Despite his firm grasp of practical politics,
however, it is a mistake to look for concreteness in his poetry, where his
concern is with subtleties of perception and with the underlying forces of
nature: his most characteristic image is of sky and weather, of lights and
fires. His poetic stance invites the reader to respond with similar outgoing
aspiration. It adheres to the Rousseauistic belief in an underlying spirit
in individuals, one truer to human nature itself than the behaviour evinced
and approved by society. In that sense his material is transcendental and
cosmic and his expression thoroughly appropriate. Possessed of great
technical brilliance, he is, at his best, a poet of excitement and power.
-- EB again
And letting Dorothy Parker have the last word (since she does it so well)
Byron and Shelley and Keats
Were a trio of lyrical treats.
The forehead of Shelley was cluttered with curls,
And Keats never was a descendant of earls,
And Byron walked out with a number of girls,
But it didn't impair the poetical feats
Of Byron and Shelley,
Of Byron and Shelley,
Of Byron and Shelley and Keats.
-- Dorothy Parker, 'A pig's eye view of literature'
m.
From: Amit Chakrabarti <amitc@>
Another poem which I am in love with. The imagery is not just in the
last line; the whole poem *is* an image. One beautifully composed still
photograph. By not imposing on the reader his own opinions or thoughts
on what is conveyed by this photograph, Shelley actually makes the poem
hit home harder.
An amazing achievement!
--
-------------------------------------------------------------
Amit Chakrabarti:
409A, Butler Avenue | Department of Computer Science
Princeton, NJ 08540 | 35 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ 08544
BUZZ: (609)-430-0086 | BUZZ: (609)-258-6126
E-mail: amitc@
URL: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~amitc
From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@>
Fans of interactive fiction (aka 'text adventures') are urged to take a
look at Statue, a wonderful piece of IF art, at
http://members.aol.com/iffyart/gallery.htm
(IF art is a rather new concept, the object being to use the medium to
create a pure work of art, stripped of the conventional elements of
puzzle, narrative and plot. The results are unusual to say the least)
m.
From: "Brooke Sorenson" <BrookeS_16@>
he uses the word antique not ancient it makes the poem sound intriging.
From: "laurie doerfler" <laurie@>
You seem to have misinterperted this poem. For one it is not a love
poem. Romantics did not write of love. Romantics wrote of nature, the
respect for, and love of. This poem says to Ramses ll, you may have
been great, but even you will respect the wrath of nature and time.
Your wellcome,
Richard Doerfler
From: Martin Julian DeMello <martindemello@>
Also sprach laurie doerfler...
> You seem to have misinterperted this poem. For one it is not a love poem.
> Romantics did not write of love.
Actually, you misinterpreted my comment - I was alluding to the fact that,
despite the fact that most sonnets are love poems, my two favourites are
the atypical 'Chapman's Homer' and 'Ozymandias'.
> Romantics wrote of nature, the respect for, and love of. This poem says
> to Ramses ll, you may have been great, but even you will respect the
> wrath of nature and time.
I agree - more precisely, Rameses may not have respected the mastery of
time, but that made little difference in the end.
m.
From: Amirtha Navarathinarasah <rogan_nava@>
hey,
we wanna get our answers for questions not some craped up info, it's
useless. you're web site is useless, just useless,
From: "McGillicuddy, Colin" <McGillicuddyC@>
Succinctly, the theme of this poem might be put, "time laughs" ...
From: Blake Walter <bjwalter@>
I was struck by a thought; you wrote in response to one of the earlier
messages:
"I agree - more precisely, Rameses may not have respected the mastery of
time, but that made little difference in the end."
And yet, through Shelley's poem, Ozymandias's reign is extended a bit
further. Not perhaps in the manner he (Ozymandias) would have liked,
but as a warning, his name now stretches into even the post-modern
conscience and finds life again amongst the ethereal essences of the
Internet. Even though his vast and trunkless legs of stone may now be
worn away completely, by recording them in his poem, Shelley has
guaranteed them a permanence that will elude most of the rest of the
rulers of this world.
As long, at least, as there are those of us who read Shelley.
Long live Ozymandias!
--Blake Walter
bjwalter@
From: "Nacho" <nachoeoy@>
Its good
From: Michelle Meltzer <michelle.e.meltzer@>
The rhyme scheme of "Ozymandias" is not ababacdcdcefef, as your page says.
It is ababacdcedefef.
Love always,
~Michelle~
Psalm 139
AIM- tessd1891
http://www.angelfire.com/ny/SparkleEyez/index.html
From: "Diane Diner" <ddiner@>
Hello,
My name is Jacquelyn Diner I`m almost 13 years old and I have a
question about Percy Bysshe Shelley. I`m doing some research for my
teacher and he would like me to find out if Shelley has ever been to
Egypt to be able to write the poem "Ozymandias". I would be very
grateful if you could help me. My e-mail address is
sweety_bear7@ . Thank you for all your help.
Sincerely,
Jacquelyn Diner
From: Ssaddendum@
Hi - When reading your comments on Shelley's Ozymandias you make reference to
"EB" as a source, but I can't find any reference to what text "EB" is on your
site, just curious, thanks for help. - Sarah Simons
From: "Ashok Rajwade" <ashokrajwade@>
i really adore this site for my literature studies. along with forming
my views about poems i even get to read others views. it is like a
literature class.
sincerely,
ketaki rajwade
From: MrMalunum@
I thought this poem was particularly interesting. It seems to express the
idea that we work hard for what we have, but in the end we lose it all. There
is a variation on this theme though; perhaps what we had was lost to us, but
it is not lost to those who succeed us.
From: Rick Molloy <rmolloy@>
Hi Michelle,
I must admit that I am not as well versed in the syntax of poetry as you
appear to be; but I do feel that 'Ozymandias' is one of the great poems of
all time. Thirty years ago I lived in North Africa and, driving throught the
desolate wastes of the sandy desert, I came upon the most spectacular ruins
in the sands. Shattered statues of great rulers, long forgotten, were spread
across the desert floor. Both the heat and the sparseness of the desert
took your breath away. And, in that most desolate of places, you really felt
a closeness to the shattering of an age. So, given my exposure to a
potential 'Ozimansias', I really appreciated this poem, and hope that you do
not find it vulgar, but find it a truly breathtaking poem.
Regards,
Rick
From: "Robert Rovinsky" <robert.rovinsky@>
dear laurie
romantics did not write of love? perhaps you mean they didn't write of
requited love. in fact, they wrote of love all the time -- when not writing
about nature, that is.
r rovinsky
From: ANANTHARAMAN <shreyati@>
--Boundary_(ID_Z1DTptiRMqhCwfeWvAa9wQ)
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2314.1000" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>
--Boundary_(ID_Z1DTptiRMqhCwfeWvAa9wQ)--
From: "Maryanne Leroy" <maryanne@>
Firstly, I really love this poem.
Secondly, being Irish, a songwriter, an author,a former ad agency
copywriter...I just can't help myself...so here goes...
The Wizard of Ozmandias
(with apologies to Percy B -- my man!)
We met amongst the shifting sands
in the Valley of the Kings
I parked my Tutankamun Ghia
and counted all the rings
that pierced your nose, your ears and brows
a hundred shiny coils
We sat with tall drinks filled with Isis
around us the desert boiled
I really feel Karnakered
you said, reclining flat
Rameses brings me to my knees
It's as Abu Simbel as that
If we had a Seti or any kind of couch
I'd be a happy Horus
and not such a big grouch
So there we sat until the dusk
on Ozymandias' head
and watched the sands turn red as blood
Nothing more was said
She flashed her Nefertiti
as the sun went down
I thought I heard a pyramid
tumble to the ground
(c) Pete LeRoy 2004
lyrixunltd@
From: LaDyEpIc69@
Hi i need your help to find out whether Ode to the West wind has a masculine,
feminin, or triple rhyme i really need your help Thanks,
Ursula
From: "gabrielle" <gabrielle@>
I thought you might appreciate knowing that Shelley apparently wrote
this poem as part of a competition in a pub to see who could write the
best poem in 15 minutes.
(you can see the other poem at
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1904.html, Shelley's is
brilliant, the other is reasonable, but pales in comparison)
It's somewhat ironic that Ozymandias would be all but forgotten but for
this poem, but his life's works, his achievements have lived on to grace
our screens courtesy of 15 minutes in a pub.
For all your material greatness to be eclipsed so suddenly and so
succinctly by mere thoughts and scribbles, and in so banal a situation.
Perhaps we should take more care with the things we write on the
internet...... ; - p
From: "albertk" <albertkjr@>
In a few hundred years, no matter how great, you probably will not be
remembered.
All the best,
Albert Killingsworth
From: judi.vangorder.b9gx@ Thu Jan 20 17:05:40 2005
This poem is a quatorzain. It could be called a sonnet. (a sonnet,
little song, is written in 14 lines and is usually a lyrical meditation
of sorts). There are variations of the sonnet. This poem is written in
a manner closest to a Sicilian Sonnet although I found a reference
on-line that identifies it as an Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet, with
which I disagree. This poem is lyrical in nature but it unfolds as a
narrative (telling a story).
The difference between the Sicilian Sonnet and the Italian or Petrarchan
Sonnet is the rhyme scheme. The Sicilian Sonnet rhyme scheme is
alternating rhyme and in its truest form is limited to 4 end rhymes
(abababab cdcdcd). The Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet employs an envelope
rhyme scheme in the octave abbaabba but has options in the sestet,
cdcdcd or cdecde and can have as many as 5 rhyming end sounds. This
poem ( with a rhyme scheme of ababacdcedefef ) starts out in alternating
rhyme and ends in alternating rhyme but mixes it up in the middle a bit.
It carries 6 rhyming end sounds.
The turn or volta (epiphany) of the poem in a Sicilian Sonnet and the
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet occurs slowly somewhere between L6 and L10.
The volta of this poem occurs much later in L 11/12, more like the
English Sonnet.
Judi Van Gorder
From: Billburgin2@
Since I first read it in 1954, Ozmandias has been one of my favorites. It
should be
required reading, annually, for everyone from fifth grade school, throughout
the remainder of their lives.
However, for some reason, I must question the conflict of the spelling in
the title and within the text of the poem, i. e, Osymandias. Any comments
about why?
From: "Marie Hall" <mhall@>
I've stopped 1,207 spam messages. You can too!
One month FREE spam protection at http://www.cloudmark.com/spamnetsig/?