Poem :- Ozymandias

Notes by Aqsa Burki from “1st year c”

About the poet:-

Written by PB Shelley (Percy Bysshe shelley)
He was born in 1729-1822.
He was one of the famous English poet.

About the poem:-

This poem is actually one of the anthologized and celebrated poem .It was
published in 1818 and the next year it got a place in shelley`s collection .So this
poem is actually a sonnet poem.

Sonnet= 14 lines poem Consist of two stanzas

One is an Octave , Second is a Sustet
Octave =08 lines stanza
Sustet = 06 lines stanza

About the title:-

Ozymandias is the name of the remises II
Or the name of a pharah (firoon)
 Summary
This sonnet is about the ruins of a statue of ozymandias .If we go in the history
and we look at the historical context of this name so ozymandias was a greek
name for the ancient egyption pharah. So this poem is actually about the statue
of remises II.

This poem ironically presents a great message about the transitory or you can
say that the temporariness of our existence. So this poem is about a king and he
once enjoyed his commanding powers and he had all the people under his
command and but now he is reduced to dust.

This was the context or the main info of the poem .The pretext of the poem is
very important for us to understand. So there is a speaker who is talking and he
says that met a traveller from an ancient land, or an old land.

It can be said that a traveller was from a place with an ancient land or a place
with an ancient history like Rome, Greece or may be an ancient Egypt or may be
he was a random traveller ,who was travelling from to that particular land.

So he says that the traveller told him the story of the ruins statue that he had
come across that he had seen. So it’s a story with in a story if we talk about the
structure of the poem .So this is a story with in a story. Like in the first line the
Letter “ I” So here I is the poet who is telling us the story I mean shelley is telling
us the story .It means that there is one story that we are learning from shelley
and shelley is telling us the story that he had learned from an another traveller.

So the poet met a traveller .The traveller told the poet about the ruined statue of
the great powerfull king , ozymandias .He says that the statue is made up of the
stone in an old land . Moreover, it stands on legs only . The upper body was
destroyed Further more , the face of the statue lay nearby on the sand . It was
damaged and destroyed by the passage of time . The face of the statue had
expressions of displeasure and a taunting smile . .The wrinkles and the lines of the
face were also there .The poet says that the sculpter who had made the statue
had read the expressions on the egypting king Remises`s Face very well as he was
able to copy themon to his statue so accurately.

These expresssions continued to exist even after the death of the king through
this lifeless statue . The traveller next describes the words inscribed on the
pedestal of the statue , which says

“ My name is ozymandias kings of kings : look upon my works,

ye mighty and despair”

The kings announced himself as the mightiest .He wanted other kings to feel
belited in front of him . The poet says that now nothing else other than this
engraving remains. The statue broke down with the passage of time and it`s
broken pieces could be seen lying around . The vast desert streached all around
and it seemed to be endless. The statue of the great king Ozymandias was now
here to be seen .Thus , In this poem The poet brings out the vanity of human
power. Every thing in this world is temporarily and is bound to crumble and
brought law with the passage of time . Every one has to bite dust and their works
will be buried in the level of sand.

The poet gaves us the message that we should always be thankfull to Allah in
every condition never to be proud .

All men are mortal. Even the mightiest.

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THE END