![]() ![]() The universality of power is the message of the poem, and to have such a vague description is really great, because it leaves so much more to the imagination. It makes it more universal, as if many ancient civilisations could have such statues as he describes later. It could be Macchu Pichu, the Aztecs, the Incas, the Mayans, the Hun… the fact that Egypt is not mentioned specifically is important, because it means it’s also another level of vague old mystery. Still, it adds another little shot of mystery right in there, with the vagueness of the place. The “antique land” is a little ambiguous, as is the title, but you don’t have to be an Egyptologist to know that Egypt is the place in question. was born in) the antique land, since that just sounds more marvellously mysterious. he was born there?) or a traveller who’s come back from the “antique land”? For me, I like to think that he’s a traveller that came from (i.e. Is the traveller FROM the antique land (i.e. ![]() The first line of the poem gives us a bit of context: the traveller is from “an antique land” – it’s still a little ambiguous though. In this post, I’m focusing on the language, ideas and views expressed in the poem. Shelley would feel no hesitation at all in writing a poem directly criticising Mad King George, believe me! To recap: Ozymandias is a sonnet, but please don’t try to link it to love rather link it to the sonnet traditions of John Milton if you must the poem isn’t about a particular statue being brought to England, more the phenomenon of Egyptology which was particularly popular at the time Shelley was writing the poem could be a critique of King George III among others, but it’s not specifically about him. I also looked a little at the sonnet form. This is a metaphor for the fame that is lost of a once great leader and has been buried in the sands of time.In the last post, I had a look at some of the myths, fallacies and truths around the context of Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, to help GCSE English Literature candidates for AQA make sense of what’s out there. Not a lot of people go through the desert, or would desire to. This broken and weathered statue lies in a desolate place that stretches on for miles and miles. Ozymandias is taken to be a commentary on the ephemeral nature of power and it reflects Shelley’s dislike for monarchs and dictators who wield power and are tyrants. This heavy description reflects Shelley’s personal thoughts on people who hunger for and have power. From the second line on, the reader is confronted with a vivid picture of the situation with majestic and heavy words such as ‘vast and trunkless’, ‘half sunk’,’shattered visage’ ‘frown and wrinkled lip’ and ‘sneer of cold command’. Shelley has evocative language, which creates some very intense images. It is this person who then narrates the story about the huge statue in the sands of the desert, a monument of a great leader which has now lost all its glory. The reader is listening in to a conversation between two people, he or she has a third person perspective on what is being said in the exchange between a traveller, who has recently returned from a journey through an ancient country and the poet. ![]() This kind of format was very unusual for a sonnet at that time and it reflects Shelley’s innovative thinking. Then he switches the focus to a third person deliberately and cleverly a traveler, whose words form the remaining thirteen lines. The poet uses the first person pronoun “I” to begin his sonnet. He is best known for classic poems such as “Ozymandias”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark”, “Music, When Soft Voices Die”, “The Cloud”, and “Masque of Anarchy”. In 1814, when he travelled to London, he met with the philosopher William Godwin and subsequently Mary Godwin, with whom he fell in love with. The poet was an important member of a close circle of exemplary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, John Keats, Thomas Love Peacock, and his own wife, Mary Shelley. The recognition of his achievements in poetry grew after his death. He was a radical in his poetry as well and that may be a reason as to why Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime. Along with his beautiful lyrical poetry, he also ventured into criticism of politics, being highly critical of the cruelty and injustice of the British establishment. He was strongly influenced by the poems of William Wordsworth also became close to the two great romantic poets – John Keats and Lord Byron. Shelley was very generous and supportive of fellow poets and was a major figure in the development of English romantic poetry. Shelley was a famous English romantic poet, who gained attention for his beautiful lyrical poetry and strongly ideal and radical political thought. ![]()
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