Poem: Ozymandias by Shelley

[janne_d]

There are a lot of poems that I was aware of, or knew lines from, before I ever read the full version. Writers like Dorothy L. Sayers, P.G. Wodehouse and even Terry Pratchett use quotes and allusions and sometimes I'll read the source later on and get a nice little ring of recognition.

A lot of the time an association with some other text adds to the liking I have for a poem (though sadly for "The Blessed Damozel" by Rossetti, my prior association is Madeline Bassett and Gussy Fink-Nottle arguing over vegetarianism and while I'm sure the original poem is very lovely and romantic, I now can't take it at all seriously).

In the case of "Ozymandias", I knew a few lines of it years before I even realised it was a poem. A character in (I'm pretty sure) the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher quotes the famous declaration as part of his fake mad ramblings. The lines were memorable enough to stick and eventually I read the full poem and went "aha".


Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-- Shelley


I love the irony of the end of the poem and the sheer hubris of the quote from the pedestal.

I actually have a second association for this poem as it reminds me of a trip to Egypt. Ozymandias is another name for Ramses the Great, or Ramses II, who by all accounts really was pretty darn impressive. (One of the things I can remember from a tour of Karnak temple in Luxor was our guide telling us that he and his wife Nefertari were meant to have had some ridiculous number of children (100?) and that the guides nicknamed them Ramsex and Nevertire!) So although I can see the point of the poem that everything is transitory, even empires, I also have some sympathy for Ozymandias' declaration of being a king of kings. And given just how much of what he built does in fact remain, the statement from his statue becomes less ironic outside of the context of the poem.

The lines in question are also apparently from a Greek translation of an actual inscription on one of Ramses' commemorative statues: "King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works." I rather like that it is real and not something just out of Shelley's imagination.

Comments

[thisissirius.livejournal.com]

I remember doing this poem in my English Lit class and I don't know why it stuck out as much as it did. I can;t even begin to remember how we dissected it and what we came to, but WOW. I just, I don't know, something about it is really powerful and it's always stuck around, no matter what :>

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of the same - I know I think it is fantastic all the way through, but pinning down why is difficult. Something about the rhythm of the lines, maybe? I really like "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" for some reason.

We didn't do much poetry in English at school. I'm not sure whether that was good or not - it might be nice to know more about analysing them, but then again it's nice to discover things that I like for myself without being told it's all about the poet's fear of socialism or whatever.

[thisissirius.livejournal.com]

I remember having the choice. I wanted to do poetry because books were all well and good but I didn't actually get poetry and I wanted too, so I spent a lot of time with my teacher on one on one basis because most of the class chose books.

I don't know why, I'd always had a thing about poetry ♥

I should find some of my favourites.

I think you're right about the lines. They just fit so nicely, as well. All the way through. It strikes a cord and I love it!

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

I really like that poem. I'm not generally good on poetry, but I occasionally recite that one to myself (especially the pedestal inscription)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

The pedestal inscription definitely goes through my mind every so often. It's one of those ones as well where I almost have the rest of it memorised - but not quite.

When you say not good, do you mean you don't read much or you don't like much? I'm trying to post one or two a week that I like - maybe you'll find more that suit you.

edited for stupid typo, sorry

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

I mean both, really. I am a quick person, and reading poetry is slow because of the rhythm, so I don't tend to read much of it. I usually like it enough when I get round to it - I found at uni that I liked it more than I expected to - but I just never get around to it. I ought to make more of an effort...

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

And I'm so slow tonight that I just noticed your icon! How cool.

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant to include the icon thing in the other response but obviously I'm slow tonight as well *g*. It was made by kittyrainbow and I just saw it somewhere and asked for permission to use it. I tend to wheel it out for vaguely literary things!