The traveller tells the story of Ozymandias as a forbidding dictator. An austere or solemn ruler, is depicted in the expression of the visage of the statue, “wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command”. The sculptor did a good job of depicting Ozymandias just the way he wanted his legacy to be known to the rest of the world and throughout the ages. Ozymandias wanted the people to view him as remote and all over commanding figure. The king places himself and his name on a pedestal. He does not only place his own name on a pedestal, but he also refers to himself as “King of Kings”. It doubles as a way to instill the fact that he is the greatest king, its and arrogant and boastful act. He also tries to instill fear by adding “despair” to his plaque. Perhaps as a warning to the nations, that he has conquered. Line 10 and line 11 in the poem also refers to a sense that Ozymandias commanded an overbearing totalitarian rule. He not just sees himself as having complete control over his subjects, but also wishes to display control over nature and over his lands. The “wrinkled lip” in line 5 shows that he might have ruled his land for a long time. Ozymandias passionately wants the world to see him as an all conquering king. A king who’s reigned consisted of absolute control and power. His power stretches so far, that he can instill images of himself on nature. He instills his image on hard and cold rocks, which is a similar description of his reign, and the way he wants to be seen.
Shelley’s poem and depiction of Ozymandias could be a symbolic way of promoting his views against the monarchy, as he depicts Ozymandias as a tyrant with harsh descriptions such as “a sneer of cold command” and mocks him with the juxtaposition of “king of kings” and “colossal wreck”. However, instead of obviously putting forward his views and risking negative exposure, Shelley distances himself from the poem with intriguing use of multiple perspectives. The poem begins with “I met”, a first person introduction, but quickly switches to the traveller’s perspective as Shelley depicts what the traveller saw. In this way, he subtly puts across his socialist views without incriminating himself through symbolism and distancing himself from the narrative. In this way, the poem presents two powerful rulers, with Ozymandias symbolising King George.
In this essay, I will compare and contrast two different sculptures from two different contexts of art. The first being an Olmec Colossal head (monument 1), from the context of “Art of the Americas,” and the second sculpture being ahead from Rafin Kura. The head from Rafin Kura comes from the context of “Art of Africa.” Both sculptures come from two different time periods and parts of the world. They also are both made with natural materials and have their own symbolic meaning.
In Ozymandias, the narrator speaks of an “antique land” that he’s travelled to and comes across a statue which is the King Ozymandias (who is the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.) The structure of the poem is written in an petrarchan
In addition, a king was expected to be a role model to his people. He was a symbol of human perfection for his subjects to emulate like in our president today.
The life of a dominant king who got lost in the things of the world, resulted in him losing focus on his destiny through power and time. It is a battle between man and the natural world he faced. Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, demonstrates that no matter the position one holds, in time, power can be arrogant and ruling, but cannot ultimately last for an eternity.
The statue of Kouros by an unknown artist, depicts a Greek young man. He is nude representing the ideal heroic male nude. This work is symbolic because he is the representation of God, warrior, a symbolic ancestor or a victorious athlete. His large eyes were made by getting inspiration from Mesopotamia. From the frontal view, his hands are at sides, fists clenched, and striding feet. The stiff and muscular figure symbolizes that he was ready to go into war for his town, family or country. The eyes are unnaturally wide open, and the mouth forms a characteristic closed expression, also known as archaic smile. Archaic smile makes a piece more expressive. The stiff figure and frontality shows the symbolism of the piece.
King" was not good enough so he started calling himself the " First Emperor ", a title hey
Shelley’s version of “Ozymandias” pays particular attention to the details of what remains of Ramses’s statue. Shelley conveys to the reader that no matter how powerful a ruler may be, their influence will fade with time. The description of what Babylon looks like when the poem was written gives the reader a clear
The poem "Ozymandias" tells a story about a traveler, who reveals his or her story to the narrator of the poem. The author of the poem is Percy Bysshe Shelley. He keeps the interest of the poem by using constant sounds and images that are clear and concise, by supplying mystery with words that have more than one meaning, and by using a spectrum of words that capture the interpreters attention.
Shelley dwells little on the small details of Ozymandias' face, but by Ozymandias' frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, delivered in less than two lines, immediately carry to the reader a vision of a cold, callous, yet strong and determined leader who is commanding his people building his great vast statue hoping his power would be immortal. These concrete items are vital to the description, but are not as strong as what can not be seen. Shelley gives a nod to the talent of the sculptor, from whom Ozymandias received a mirror image of his personality, placed in stone because of his thinking to survive
A poem about a statue that has far outlived its boastful inscribers, albeit shattered in pieces. This discrepancy is seen between the lines 10-12, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!/ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay…” Clearly, these people thought they were mighty and great, but instead, they are gone and all that remains are the shattered statues. When we die, we cannot take anything with us. It doesn’t matter how rich and important someone is in life; They are nothing but a memory when they are
From this you can imagine a very conceited, arrogant pharaoh, commanding his people building this great vast statue hoping his power would be immortality. And when this great piece of work is done, he demanded to put such words on the pedestal: ‘"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look at my works, ye Mighty and despair!"’(Lines, 10-11). Ozymandias seemed to think that as long as his sculpture was there, his kingdom would last forever.
The king Ozymandias has a great amount of pride for what he has accomplished during his time as ruler. He had a sculptor erect a massive statue of him, which shows how highly he thought of himself. The pedestal of the statue stated "My name is Ozymandias king of kings: / Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" (Shelley, 136, 10-11).
In Amitav Ghosh's, "In an Antique Land", the author compares his life with that of a slave named Bomma. He reveals that both men live in antique lands, foreign to their culture and surrounded by very different people. Ghosh also relates the book to Percy Bysshe Shelly's poem Ozymandias, a piece on mankind's hubris and the insignificance of the individual. Ghosh effectively juxtaposes Bomma's life with his own as he tries to find himself and unlock the slaves past through the ancient papers of the Cairo Geniza. Through historical details and antidotes, the author proves how a place can be both antique and contemporary.
By calling himself “king of kings”, he alludes to God and believes he is greater than all other men. He ruled his kingdom solely on the fear of those beneath him. The intimidating language on the pedestal and the statue made for him display that Ozymandias possessed almighty power. To end the poem, Shelley writes, “Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The line and level sands stretch far away.” As time passed, the sand literally destroyed the symbol of what was once the greatest man alive.