Beth A. Kline

West Chester University

 

 

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias”

 

 

            In “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley uses a ruined statue of Ramses II to illustrate the negative aspects of the sublime.  Edmund Burke identified as sublime “the experience of contemplating enormous heights and depths but also the experience of being isolated from other humans” (Ferguson 339).  Both of these themes figure prominently in “Ozymandias.”

            The poem opens with a mysterious “traveler from an antique land” (1) describing the demolished statue of Ozymandias (Ramses II).  The traveler serves as the human consciousness required to give force to the ideas of the destructiveness of nature and the annihilation of mankind.  Because the human mind can attribute destructiveness to nature, nature needs humans for it to be perceived as destructive and to continue to be destructive (Ferguson 339).  As Shelley does not state specifically how the statue was destroyed, and given its remote location, on might assume its destruction was due to an act of nature.  The legs of the statue are described as “vast” (2), while the ruins are a “colossal Wreck” (13); both descriptions refer to the concept of the sublime as awe-inspiring and terrifying.

            The “vast and trunkless legs of stone” (2), along with the pedestal, are the only parts of the statue left standing; “near them, on the sand/half sunk, a shattered visage lies” (3 – 4).  The “shattered visage” might be seen as a form of depersonalization, an illustration that mortals are insignificant and powerless when compared to nature.  Even though Ozymandias is a king, he is nothing in the eyes of nature.  The fact that the face is partially covered by sand shows that humans are always in danger of being subsumed and dominated by nature, such as when natural disasters occur.

            The “frown/and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” (4 – 5), along with the engraving on the pedestal, “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings/Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10 – 11) demonstrate hubris.  Although here nature’s power is acknowledged (“ye Mighty”), Ozymandias is exhorting the wonder of his works, stating outright that his creation is far superior to that of nature, even though his creations are “lifeless things” (7).  Ozymandias’s attempt to surpass nature in his works is contemptuous – his hand “mocks nature” (8).  The statue is destroyed to punish Ozymandias for excessive pride; the King’s boastful statement remains as a warning against hubris to the mere mortals who may encounter the ruined statue.  The fact that Ozymandias’s “passions … yet survive” (6 – 7) illustrate that humans still believe they are superior to nature, and believe this at their own risk.

            As in “Mont Blanc,” Shelley’s account of the destroyed statue in “Ozymandias” recurs to its remoteness from all that civilization involves (Ferguson 339).  This is illustrated by the placement of the statue in the desert, far from human habitation:  “boundless and bare/the lone and level sands stretch far away” (13 – 14).

            Considering Shelley’s personal life at the time he composed this poem allows for a different perspective of this work.  Not only was Shelley suffering financially, two of his children by Mary Shelley died, which negatively affected their marriage (“Percy” 698).  It can be said that the ruined statue signifies the state of the Shelleys’ marriage, while its isolation in the desert reflects Percy Shelley’s feelings of estrangement from his wife and the arid nature of a discontented marriage.

            Whether a warning against excessive pride, a discussion of the negative sublime, or allusion to an unhappy marriage, the fact remains that this poem is an excellent piece worthy of inclusion in the canon of British literature.  The imagery in the poem, as well as its accessibility, make it readily enjoyable by any reader.

Works Cited

 

Ferguson, Frances.  “Shelley’s ‘Mont Blanc’:  What the Mountain Said.”  Romantic Poetry.  Ed. Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff.  New Brunswick:  Rutgers UP, 1993.

“Percy Bysshe Shelley.”  The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Ed. M.H. Abrams.  New York:  W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.  698 – 701.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe.  “Ozymandias.” .The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Ed. M.H. Abrams.  New York:  W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.  725 – 6.