It is said to have been destroyed in an earthquake in the third century BCE. Number of times this content has been viewed 152 Button to like this content Button to share content Button to report this. 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. The speaker in Shelleys poem has heard a story about the ruins of a once impressive statue of a long dead king named Ozymandias. King of Kings King of kings was a title used by many rulers in the ancient Middle East. According to the inscription which has survived, the king erected the statue to draw attention to his works but his own face has not survived. The face lies in the sand, ‘half-sunk’ and ‘shattered’, making it hard to recognise. The statue is ruined, the legs remain but the body has fallen. 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. Ozymandias is the Greek name for the pharaoh Rameses II. The actual Rameses apparently had a statue in Egypt with a similar inscription: “King of Kings am I, Osymandias. Far from standing forever, even the most imposing of man’s creations wear away. Ozymandias The Greek name for Rameses II of Egypt. Ramesses II, also called Ozymandias, as a symbol of the decline in time of personal possessions and power. He knew John Keats and wrote a passionate elegy on his death, ‘Adonais’.Notes antique Pronounced with the accent on the first syllable. It is Shelley’s shorter poems that are chiefly read today, including ‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘To a Skylark’ and ‘Ozymandias’. 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a poem told by an anonymous narrator who encounters a traveler who tells of a fallen and shattered statue in a remote area in the desert. Shelley was part of a highly creative literary circle within the English Romantic movement, which included his later wife, Mary, who wrote Frankenstein. He eloped with Mary and, during their travels in Europe, formed a close friendship with Byron. He married and had a child with Harriet Westbrook, but abandoned her after falling in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of the philosopher William Godwin, who influenced Shelley’s thinking. His career at Oxford was cut short by his refusal to repudiate the contents of a pamphlet he had written, ‘The Necessity of Atheism’, and he was estranged from his prosperous family. Shelley’s revolutionary ideas, independent mind and intellectual curiosity were evident from an early age. What is the effect of the distancing of the narrative as Shelley imagines a traveller’s encounter with the statue and reports his words? About Percy Bysshe Shelley The final line encourages the reader’s eye to turn away from the tomb to contemplate the vast expanse of empty sand stretching away into the distance. He is reduced to a ‘wreck’, albeit a ‘colossal’ one. However, the scene of ruin and decay suggests that even the mighty Ozymandias cannot contend with human mortality and the impermanence of anything other than the natural world. The final five lines draw attention to the inscription on the pedestal, which proclaims Ozymandias’s power and the futility of trying to emulate his achievements. How does Shelley reflect upon the work of the sculptor who created the statue in lines four to eight? What aspects of Ozymandias’s character has the sculptor captured so perceptively? Only two trunkless legs remain, and a ‘shattered visage’ half hidden in the sand. It appears that the once magnificent tomb of the pharaoh now lies broken in the desert sands. Ozymandias was the name given to a hugely powerful thirteenth‑century BC Egyptian king. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair Investment & Participation.
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