Ozymindias
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
About poet :
" Fear no for the future ; and weep not for the past ".
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English poet .
Born : 4 August , 1792i
Died : 8 July , 1822
Occupation : Poet , Dramatist , Essayist Novelist .
P . B . Shelley is regarded by some as among the finest lyric and philosophical poets in the English language and one of the most influential . A redical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views . Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime , but recognition of his achieve means in poetry grew steadily following his death .
Shelley is perhaps best known for classical poems such as :
Ode to the west mind
To a Skylark
The Cloud
The Masque of Anarchy
About poem :
Shelley's poem imagines a meeting between narrator and a 'traveller' who describes a ruined statue he or she saw in the middle of a desert somewhere . The description of the statue is a meditation on the fragility of human power and on the effects of time .
Analysis :
" I met a travel from an antique land "
The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an " antique land " . Who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country . Two vast legs of stone stand without a body , and near them a huge , crumbline stone had lies , " half sunk " in the sand . The traveler told the speaker that the frown and " sneer of cold command "
On the statue's face indicate that the sculptor understood well the passions of the statue's subject , a man who sneered with contempt for those weaker than himself , yet fed his people because of something in his heart ( " The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed " )
On the pedestal of the statue appear the words :
" My name is Ozymindias king of kings ; "
But around the decaying ruin of the statue , nothing remains , only the " lone and level sands " which stretch out around it far away .
Ozymindias is a story with moral which was a true picture of Shelley's thoughts . All human power and all the arrogance that such power generates in those who hold it is badly misplaced .
Ozymindias was another name of the Egyptian pharach , Rameses 2 , who was the powerful tyrant ruled in the 13th century B.C. He was so proud of his power that he commissioned a sculptor to carve warning to the rulers :
" Look on my works , ye might , and despair "
For Ozymindias it was no matter that how powerful they are. He tells them , they should despair of ever matching his power .
Yet now , many centuries later , his magnificent city has disappeared under the desert sands and his statue is a wreck . Only "two vast and truckless legs" remain standing .
Throughout the poem , we can easily realize that Shelley has depicted his attitude to political developments in his own days . He despise monarchies , which he saw institutions for the suppression of civil and religious liberty . And he believed that people should revolt against them .
Another belief of Shelley is also seen through the poem that artists are wiser and more powerful than political rulers . The work of sculptor has outlived the sculptor has " well passions read " which is the picture of Ozymindias that all human power and pride is foolish and ill founded . Shelley truly saw his own functions as poet to be just like that of the sculptor . By it Shelley's belief reflects through the poetry which out lives the tyrannous monarchies of Europe .
It is clear then that the poem depends for its effectiveness on its multiple ironies .
Phonological level :
Metaphor :
There is one expanded metaphor used in the poem . The statue of Ozymindias metaphorically represents power , lagacy and command .
Personification :
Shelley has used personification to use human emotions . He has used personification twice in the poem .
Rhyme scheme :
The word poem follow ,
ABBAABBACDCDCD .
Conclusion :
Perhaps Shelley chose the medium of poetry in order to create something more powerful and lasting than what politics could achieve, all the while understanding that words too will eventually pass away .