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.
So, who’s the mastermind
behind Ozymandias?
• Percy Bysshe Shelly, a major English Romantic poet,
published the famous sonnet Ozymandias in 1818 when he was
26.
• Shelly viewed poetry as a “fountain forever overflowing with the
waters of wisdom and delight” (401, 19th Century…) This
indicates that he felt as if poetry had an abundant amount of
lessons to be learned and joy to be experienced.
• He was influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann
Gottfried Herder.
• Rousseau was a philosopher and writer of the 18th century.
Johann Gottfried Herder was also a philosopher and poet of late
18th century. Their political standings, which all influenced
modern politics, and writings possibly were what influenced
Shelly.
So, who’s the mastermind behind
Ozymandias?
Continued…
• In Ozymandias, a foolish ruler is described through the
engraving on the pedestal: “My name is Ozymandias,
king of kings” (line 10), along with a crumbling empire
through the destroyed sculpture which is mentioned
throughout the entirety of the poem. Perhaps the view
of this poem is taken after being influenced from
Rousseau’s and/or Herder’s works.
• Shelly also admired Wordsworth’s work and dedicated
a sonnet to him.
• Shelly drowned while sailing in the Mediterranean Sea
and was cremated after being found. His cremation
was considered eccentric because it wasn’t typical.
This reveals that he was an independent thinker.
Ozymandias in History
• Real name is Ramesses the Great (or
Ramesses II)
• Viewed by Shelley as a tyrant
• Ramesses the Great ordered a temple to be
erected in his name. The outside of the temple
consists of 4 statues of Ramesses the Great.
• A salvaged statue from the temple shows the
same inscription as the one Shelley has in his
poem
Watchmen
• United States and Soviet Russia
on verge of nuclear war
• Adrian Veidt a.k.a Ozymandias
• Considered to be one of the
greatest minds of all of humankind
• Adrian used to be part of the
Watchmen, but when they retired,
he took to running his enterprises
Watchmen continued
• Took the initiative to “help the world”
• He destroyed most of New York with Dr.
Manhattan’s device. This caused the
U.S. and Soviet Union to come to an
agreement against a “common enemy”
• Fellow Watchman, Rorschach, wanted
to do justice to Ozymandias, but Dr.
Manhattan saw that Ozymandias was
right and eliminated Rorschach to avoid
corroding the ceasefire between the
two nations.
Meaning of Ozymandias
• Line 5-6 “And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,”
- The importance of the sneer on the statues face
• Line 7-8:
“Which yet survive stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;”
- Last Laugh idea
• Line 10-11: “'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my works. Ye Mighty, and despair!‘”
- Cockiness of Ozymandias