PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY“OZYMANDIAS”

JennaAlexTeranRichard

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

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 stonesStand in the desert. Near them on the sand.

Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold comand

Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich 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.