Ozymandias

Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon 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.

Part one:

We, as humans, tend to fancy ourselves as great and important beings. This is out nature. Most learn that while we are important, we can only accomplish what the Lord allows. Ozymandias is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that narrates the tale of a king who had not learned this and what became of his self-importance.

I find that the choice of the word 'antique' in this poem is interesting. When I see this, I think of an antique land as maybe being a long-forgotten, and thus romanticized, place. The history of this place would be so old that it was barely remembered. The policies, rulers, people, and practices of this place could only be mere speculation. The work of, most likely, thousands of people, obsolete.

Along side the pride of the people, is the pride of their ruler. The king, Ozymandias, is described as how the typical villain/ruler is: proud, cruel, and in the end, inconsequential to the fate of the world. It would almost appear naturalistic, the way that the narrator portrays that the desert has taken over what was once a great and mighty statue of a self-declared hero.

The pride of this man is probably what ended him. Whether it be by the revolt of the people or that mind set that he was invincible and impervious to the forces of nature and time. The Bible does say that pride comes before a fall, and God is not one to flake on His promises.