To start, Ozymandias carries an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem. He can tell that the sculptor must have known his subject well because it is obvious from the statues face that this man was a great leader, but one who could also be very vicious: he describes his sneer as having a “cold command.” Even though the leader was probably very great, it seems that the only thing that survives from his realm is this statue, which is half buried and somewhat falling apart. In the story, he describes visiting Egypt and seeing a large and intimidating statue in the sand. The traveler tells a story to the speaker. In this poem, the speaker describes meeting a traveler “from an antique land.” The title, ‘Ozymandias’, notifies the reader that this land is most probably Egypt, since Ozymandias was what the Greeks called Ramses II, a great and terrible pharaoh in ancient Egypt. His body washed to shore some time later. Tragically, Shelley died young, at the age of 29, when the boat he was sailing got caught in a storm. He abandoned his family to be with her they married after his first wife committed suicide, and Mary changed her surname to Shelley. Shelley met and fell in love with a young Mary Godwin, even though he was already married. He was expelled, however, when he refused to admit that he was the author of an anonymous text on atheism. Born into a well-to-do family, Shelley eventually attended Oxford, where he first started his writing career. Shelley most popular works include Ozymandias, To a Skylark, and Prometheus Unbound, which is probably his most lauded work. He was married to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Shelley never achieved fame while he was alive, but he did keep company with some extremely talented writers: his good friends included Lord Byron, George Gordon and John Keats. It is said to have been destroyed in an earthquake in the third century BCE.This is an analysis of Ozymandias, a poem written by one of the greatest Romantic poets in history, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Colossal The word colossal (“vast in size, amount, extent, or scope gigantic, huge” - OED) comes from the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a huge bronze statue of the sun god near the harbor in Rhodes. In Judaism king of kings was sometimes used to refer to God in Christianity, Jesus is several times identified as “king of kings and lord of lords.” Look on my works The copy-text for this edition, the first magazine publication of Shelley's poem, has confusing punctuation: an open quotation in line 2, then another open quotation before “My name,” with a single closing quotation mark after “King of Kings.” Most editors either put the next line - “Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!” - inside the quotations, or remove quotation marks from this section of the poem altogether. King of Kings King of kings was a title used by many rulers in the ancient Middle East. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.” When Shelley was writing the poem, the British Museum had just acquired part of a statue of Rameses. The actual Rameses apparently had a statue in Egypt with a similar inscription: “King of Kings am I, Osymandias. Ozymandias The Greek name for Rameses II of Egypt. Notes antique Pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.
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