The first-person poetic persona states that he met a person United Nations agency had been to “an antique land.” The person told him that he had seen a huge however ruined sculpture, wherever solely the legs remained standing. The face was ruined within the sand, displeased and snide. The sculptor understood his subject well. There conjointly was a pedestal at the sculpture, wherever the person scan that the sculpture was of “Ozymandias, King of Kings.” though the pedestal told “mighty” onlookers that they must look out at the King’s works and so despair at his greatness, the full space was simply lined with flat sand. All that's left is that the destroyed sculpture.
"Ozymandias" could be a fourteen-line, iambic verse line sonnet. it's not a conventional one, however. though it's neither a sonnet nor a English sonnet, the assonant theme and magnificence match a sonnet additional, notably with its 8-6 structure instead of 4-4-4-2.
Here we've a speaker learning from a person a few large, ruined sculpture that lay broken and scoured within the desert. The title of the literary work informs the reader that the topic is that the 13th-century B.C. Egyptian King Ramses, whom the Greeks known as “Ozymandias.” The person describes the good work of the sculptor, United Nations agency was ready to capture the king’s “passions” and provides important expression to the stone, Associate in Nursing otherwise “lifeless factor.” The “mocking hand” in line eight is that of the sculptor, United Nations agency had the creative ability to “mock” (that is, each imitate and deride) the passions of the king. The “heart” is 1st of all the king’s, that “fed” the sculptor’s passions, and successively the sculptor’s, with sympathy recapturing the king’s passions within the stone.
The final 5 lines mock the inscription beat into the pedestal of the sculpture. the first inscription scan “I am Ozymandias, King of Kings; if anyone desires to understand what i'm and wherever I lie, let him surpass Maine in a number of my exploits.” the concept was that he was too powerful for even the common king to relate to him; even a mighty king ought to despair at matching his power. That principle can stay valid, however it's undercut by the plain incontrovertible fact that even Associate in Nursing empire could be a human creation which will at some point depart this world. The statue and surrounding desert constitute a metaphor for invented power in the face of natural power. By Shelley’s time, nothing remains but a shattered bust, eroded “visage,” and “trunkless legs” surrounded with “nothing” but “level sands” that “stretch far away.” Shelley thus points out human mortality and the fate of artificial things.
The lesson is important in Europe: France’s hegemony has ended, and England’s will end sooner or later. Everything about the king’s “exploits” is now gone, and all that remains of the dominating civilization are shattered “stones” alone in the desert. Note the use of alliteration to emphasize the point: “boundless and bare”; “lone and level.”
It is important to keep in mind the point of view of “Ozymandias.” The perspective on the statue is coming from an unknown traveler who is telling the speaker about the scene. This helps create a sense of the mystery of history and legend: we are getting the story from a poet who heard it from a traveler who might or might not have actually seen the statue. The statue itself is an expression of the sculptor, who might or might not have truly captured the passions of the king. Our best access to the king himself is not the statue, not anything physical, but the king’s own words.
Finally, we cannot miss the general comment on human vanity in the poem. It is not just the “mighty” who desire to withstand time; it is common for people to seek immortality and to resist death and decay. Furthermore, the sculptor himself gets attention and praise that used to be deserved by the king, for all that Ozymandias achieved has currently “decayed” into virtually nothing, whereas the sculpture has lasted long enough to form it into poetry. In a way, the creator has become additional powerful than the king. The sole things that “survive” and the artist’s records of the king’s passion, engraved into the stone.
No comments:
Post a Comment