Ozymandias - in class notes
- 2. Percy Bysshe Shelly • 1792-1822 • Born to an aristocratic family and raised on a country estate • Studied at Oxford University but was expelled when he published, “The Necessity of Atheism”
- 3. Percy Bysshe Shelly • The expulsion estranged Shelly from his father and he moved to London • There he met Harriet Westbrook and they eloped • He began exploring his ideas of social justice in his poem “Queen Mab” and he continued to write and develop as a poet • His marriage with Harriet was in trouble
- 4. Percy Bysshe Shelly • Shelly then met and fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin the daughter of William Godwin and feminist writer/activist Mary Wollstonecraft • Mary was also a writer (she later wrote Frankenstein) and her politics were in line with Shelly’s • Shelly separated from his wife • After Harriet’s death in 1816, Shelly married Mary
- 5. Percy Bysshe Shelly • Due to his radical politics and his separation from his wife Shelly became an outcast in England and he moved to Italy • There he wrote many of his finest works: “Ode to the West Wind” and “To a Skylark” • He died in a boating accident at 29
- 6. Ozymandias • Sonnet – 14 line, rhyming poem • Ozymandias – Greek for Ramses II – powerful pharaoh referred to in the biblical story of Moses • Octave – 8 lines – describes the tale of the “traveler” who describes two legs of stone without a body, next to the legs is the head or “visage” of the statue sunk in the sand
- 7. Ozymandias • The “trunkless legs” the “shattered visage” tell of the destruction of the statue • The sculptor knew his subject’s passions well “wrinkled lip and cold command” – they are still “stamped on these lifeless things” • These survived “the hand that mocked them” – the sculptor and “the heart that fed” - Ramses
- 8. Ozymandias • The Sestet – six lines • We hear of the message on the pedestal of the statue – “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings/ Look on my works, Ye Mighty and despair!” • The pharaoh wanted other kings to fear and admire him • This is ironic since his statue has crumbled a “colossal wreck” and all that is left is endless sand
- 9. Ozymandias • Shelly uses alliteration to call attention to this – “stone/Stand”, “cold command”, “survive stamped”, “boundless and bare”, “lone and level” • Shelly give us three points of view – the traveler, Ozymandias and the author (Shelly) • We know Shelly’s POV was about revolution and social justice – his view of the monarchy was negative – he might have been sending a message to cold, power hungry rulers like Ramses
- 10. Ozymandias • Shelly uses alliteration to call attention to this – “stone/Stand”, “cold command”, “survive stamped”, “boundless and bare”, “lone and level” • Shelly give us three points of view – the traveler, Ozymandias and the author (Shelly) • We know Shelly’s POV was about revolution and social justice – his view of the monarchy was negative – he might have been sending a message to cold, power hungry rulers like Ramses