Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” focuses on the trend toward decline that always takes hold of the leaders of empires, particularly when they turn their attention away from fostering the growth of their people and toward perpetuating their own memories. Their pride shows forth in the erection of giant statues of themselves, on which they have artisans engrave all sorts of grandiose quotations about the unlimited power of their rule. They forget, of course, that all of us – not just individuals, but societies and countries – will come to an end at some point. This pride that makes people think that this sort of change can never come to them is the primary theme of the poem. Other themes at work include the connection between humanity and the natural world, through pride.
The poem begins with a series of images, including the desert, and the half-sunk statue. The stone stands for the nature that has erected the statue. The half-sunk nature of the statue shows that decline is always imminent, is always on the way. The very materials that had gone into the erection of the statue have begun to go back to their origins, a representation of the life cycle in which death comes as a natural outcome of life – not just for stone statues, of course, but for living humanity as well. The decline of this statue is a metaphor for the decline of the society that built it, but it is also a reminder to the vast hordes of humanity that a similar decline comes for us all. The symbolism reflects political tyranny and nationalistic pride. The name “Ozymandias” itself is a Greek sobriquet for Ramses II, one of the tyrants who ruled in the Middle East.
When we see the inscription, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings” (Shelley, web) we see the hubris at work in the thinking of this king. The immensity of the statue is another testament to his excessive sense of self. Now, of course, the statue no longer symbolizes Ozymandias’ power. Instead, it is a symbol of the transient and impermanent nature of that power. As “the lone and level sands stretch far away,” (Shelley, web) we see that nature is the last winner over all of the claims of mankind. The statue has succumbed to the entropic powers of nature, following the civilization that had created it down into the dust.
This sonnet does not hew to the typical pattern of iambic pentameter. There are several lines that start with a trochee (a foot with the first syllable emphasized instead of the second). The purpose of these alternations, as in the line “Nothing beside remains: round the decay” (Shelley, web) is to emphasize the impermanence of life itself. As with any poetic format that has such strict rules for its practitioner, any deviation from the typical rules should be interpreted as a sign of emphasis for a particular thematic point, and these shifts to trochee are no different.
The lessons from “Ozymandias” are just as poignant today as they were when Shelley penned this poem. It is difficult for people to accept their own individual mortality until they have an experience that makes them realize, on a personal level, that life is indeed short. The same sort of misguided pride causes people to think that societies and governments will last forever. As we have seen throughout the course of history, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Works Cited
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias.” n.d. Web. 1 February 2017.
