Jenna
Alex
Teran
Richard
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
“OZYMANDIAS”
Shelley’s Life
 Born August 4, 1792, at Field Place, near Horsham,
Sussex, England
 He attended Eton College for six years beginning in
1804, and then went on to Oxford University.
 He began writing poetry while at Eton, but his first
publication was a Gothic novel, Zastrozzi (1810)
 That same year, Shelley and another student, Thomas
Jefferson Hogg, published a pamphlet of burlesque
verse, "Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson“
 Shelley continued this creative outburst with more
publications, and it was one of these that got him
expelled from Oxford after less than a year's
enrollment
Shelley’s life continued
 That same year, at age nineteen, Shelley eloped to
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Scotland with Harriet Westbrook, sixteen.
Once married, Shelley moved to the Lake District of
England to study and write.
After six weeks, out of money, they returned to
England; where Shelley spent a great deal of time
with George Gordon, Lord Byron, sailing on Lake
Geneva and discussing poetry and other topics,
including ghosts and spirits. This is where he got his
inspiration for writing
In December 1816 Harriet Shelley committed suicide.
Three weeks after her body was recovered from a
lake in a London park, Shelley and Mary Godwin
officially were married.
On July 8, 1822, shortly before his thirtieth birthday,
Shelley was drowned in a storm while attempting to
sail from Leghorn to La Spezia, Italy
Lord Byron
Mary Shelley
Shelley’s writing style
 The themes that are common in Shelley’s poetry are
largely the same themes that defined Romanticism,
especially among the younger English poets of his
era: beauty, the passions, nature, political liberty,
creativity, and the sanctity of the imagination
 He is unique in his philosophical relationship to his
subject matter
Journal Assignment
 In the inscription on the Pedestal
Ozymandias calls himself the “Kings of
Kings”, this shows how much pride he
has in himself. Is self pride a good thing
or bad thing? And how could it lead
to the downfall of a leader such as
Ozymandias?
Background on poem
 Written in the 19th century in England
 Historically, Ozymandias is known as the
interesting Ramses II; on his statue he had
something written that challenged those
who read it to do greater things than he
 During the time period this sonnet was
written, Shelley was showing contempt
for King George III and the oppressive
monarch of the era
 His work was greatly inspired by the works
of Thomas Paine
Form of the poem
 “Ozymandias” is a sonnet, a fourteen-
line poem metered in iambic
pentameter. The rhyme scheme is
somewhat unusual for a sonnet of this
era; it does not fit a conventional
Petrarchan pattern, but instead
interlinks the octave with the sestet, by
slowly replacing old rhymes with new
ones in the form ABABACDCEDEFEF.
“Ozymandias”
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stones
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand.
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold comand
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the hear 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.
Summary of Poem
 The author has met someone from old
lands who told him about legs of a
statue left standing in the desert. A
broken head also remains that looked
unattractive but the ruler described it
was shaped well on a pedestal. The
description explained how
Ozymandias was a king, and how
great he has done for his territory, but
all that was left was desolation.
Theme/Main Idea
 The theme of the poem is pride and
impermanence (doesn’t last forever). EX:
“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless..”
 The main idea of the poem is that no matter how
great it is, nothing last forever but the idea can
remain
Author’s tone
 The tone of the traveler as he speaks
to the author is somewhat weary as he
tells him to beware of the trap of pride
and getting caught up in yourself.
 Also the tone involves the gloating
over someone else misfortune, when
he describes how his once mighty
civilization has passed into oblivion
and were now just broken statues in
the desert sands.
Various Elements
 This sonnet is full of literary devices such
as, alliteration, synecdoche, anastrophe,
irony. He used these devices to draw
attention to the point he was wanting to
make and to bring emotional appeal
 Alliteration: “Cold command” “Boundless and
bare” “Lone and level sand stretches”
 Synecdoche: “The hand that mocked them
and the heart that fed”
 Anastrophe: “Well those passions read”
 Irony: when the traveler says what the statue
reads even though the kingdom is gone and
all that remains is sand
Why is this a Romantic Poem
 Ozymandias reflects the writings of the
Romantic Period when it talks about how
worldly objects, fame, and power pale in
comparison to nature. In the end no
matter what the efforts of people to be
immortal they are eventually erased by
the environment of the world they want
to remember them. For example, in the
poem, the speaker talks about a statue
that was sculpted with so much passion
that was eventually destroyed by nature.
Real World Connection
 In the poem it talks about a statue that has
succumbed to the ravages of time (doesn’t last
forever), for example this can be connected to the
real world in places like Berlin when on May 9, 1989
the Berlin Wall was finally knocked down which now
unified the city which was divided for over 30 years.
The poem also implies that political regimes will
eventually crumble, just like the Berlin Wall did.
Group’s opinion
 Our groups opinion is that the poem was
confusing at first but after breaking it
down it had a good meaning behind
the poem: nothing lasts forever.