3/23/2023 0 Comments King ozymandias![]() Even if the speaker does concede that today this is not the case, and that more relevant to this era is the destruction of the statue, this portrayal of a once-powerful king reinforces the weight of his downfall. Although the visage is one that is “half sunk” and “shattered” (4), the elitist nature the word visage connotes gives the reader a glimpse into the royal pompousness of Ozymandias. ![]() It is in these first lines of the poem where the speaker builds upon the image of a powerful Ozymandias, which is next reinforced by the choice of the word “visage” in line four to describe the king’s facial features. This imbues the character of Ozymandias with regality and historical worth. This attaches to Ozymandias the connotations of the word antique, specifically the idea that something that is antique carries extra value than its less historical counterparts. For example, Shelley chooses in line one to describe the desert where Ozymandias’ statue lies in ruins as an “antique land”. This pays off later in the poem when the reader realizes that even the mighty Ozymandias is powerless against time, reinforcing the claim that time masters us all. ![]() Percy Bysshe Shelley highlights this theme in the poem through the use of provocative diction and the juxtaposition of unlike things, communicating to the reader that nothing is permanent, and all is eventually lost to the stubborn march of time.įirst, through the use of diction, Shelley presents Ozymandias as a concept of power and monarchial glory. In the poem the speaker meets an unnamed traveler who tells of the rule of Ozymandias long ago, a legend which is contradicted by the crumbling statue the speaker stumbled upon in the desert. In context, knowing that his statue is now primarily rubble, abandoned and forgotten in the desert, one can recognize that it is Ozymandias who is in fact the one ruled by time. Out of context a casual passerby of the king’s shattered sculpted likeness might infer that Ozymandias was a powerful presence in the region, and that he had dominion over not only his loyal subjects, but abstract concepts like time and death. “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings / Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10) demands the pedestal of the statue of the previously named ancient ruler.
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