“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley Essay

Ozymandias (pron. /zimndis/,2 excessively pronounced with four syllables in order to fit the meters meter) is a praise by Percy Bysshe Shelley, promulgated in 1818 in the 11 January issue of The Examiner in London. It is frequently anthologised and is probably Shelleys most famous short poem. It was written in competition with his friend Ho ply smith, who wrote a nonher sonnet empower Ozymandias seen below. In addition to the power of its basiss and imagery, the poem is notable for its virtuosic diction. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is unusual and creates a sinuous and interwoven effect.Contents1 Analysis2 Publication history3 metalworkers poem4 Cultural work out5 References6 Further reading7 External linkseditAnalysis1817 draft by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Bodleian LibraryPercy Bysshe Shelleys 1817 fair copy, Bodleian LibraryThe central theme of Ozymandias is the inevitable decline of all leaders, and of the empires they build, however in good order in their own time.The Young er Memnon statue of Ramesses II in the British Museum thought to ca-ca inspired the poem Ozymandias represents a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses behind name, User-maat-re Setep-en-re. The sonnet paraphrases the inscription on the base of the statue, given by Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca historica, as 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.56 Shelleys poem is often said to have been inspired by the 1821 arrival in London of a exceptional statue of Ramesses II, acquired for the British Museum by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni in 1816.Rodenbeck and Chaney, however,8 point out that the poem was written andpublished before the statue arrived in Britain, and and so that Shelley could not have seen it. Its repute in Western Europe preceded its veritable arrival in Britain (Napoleon had previously made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire it for France, for example), and thus i t may have been its repute or news of its imminent arrival rather than seeing the statue itself which provided the inspiration. The 2008 edition of the travel persist Lonely Planets guide to Egypt says that the poem was inspired by the fallen statue of Ramesses II at the Ramesseum, a memorial temple built by Ramesses at Thebes, near Luxor in Upper Egypt.This statue, however, does not have two vast and trunkless legs of stone, nor does it have a shattered visage with a depress / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command. Nor does the base of the statue at Thebes have any inscription, although Ramessess cartouche is chip at on the statue itself. Among the earlier senses of the verb to mock is to fashion an imitation of reality (as in a mock-up),10 solely by Shelleys day the current sense to ridicule (especially by mimicking) had come to the fore. This sonnet is often incorrectly quoted or reproduced.11 The most common misquotation Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair repl aces the correct on with upon, thus turning the regular decasyllabic (iambic pentameter) verse into an 11-syllable line.Publication historyBoth Percy Bysshe Shelley and Horace Smith submitted a sonnet on the subject to The Examiner published by Leigh Hunt in London. Shelleys was published on January 11, 1818 under the pen name Glirastes, appearing on page 24 under Original Poetry. Smiths was published, with the initials H.S., on February 1, 1818. Shelleys poem was later republished under the championship Sonnet. Ozymandias in his 1819 collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue with Other Poems by Charles and James Ollier and in the 1826 Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Benbow, twain in London.Smiths poemIN Egypts sandy silence, all alone,Stands a massive Leg, which far off throwsThe only shadow that the Desert knowsI am great OZYMANDIAS, saith the stone,The King of Kings this mighty City showsThe wonders of my hand. The Citys gone,Nought but the Leg remaining to discloseThe site of this bury Babylon.We wonder,and some Hunter may expressWonder like ours, when thro the wildernessWhere London stood, holding the creature in chace,He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guessWhat powerful but unrecorded raceOnce dwelt in that annihilated place. Horace Smith.13Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote this poem in competition with his friend Horace Smith, who published his sonnet a month after Shelleys in the same magazine.14 It takes the same subject, tells the same story, and makes a similar moralistic point, but one related more directly to modernity, ending by imagining a hunter of the incoming looking in wonder on the ruins of an annihilated London. It was originally published under the same title as Shelleys verse but in later collections Smith retitled it On A big Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below.Cultural influenceThe poem has made numerous appearanc es in popular culture, and has significantly influenced the production of new creative works. For example, terry cloth Carrs science fiction short story Ozymandias was inspired by the poem, as was the song Ozymandias by Jean-Jacques Burnel. Edward Elgar began setting the poem to music, but never finished it. The best-known setting appears to be that in Russian for baritone by the Ukrainian composer Borys Lyatoshynsky. On television, Monty Pythons Flying Circus featured a clownish parody named Ozymandias, King of Ants, and the Beauty and the Beast episode titled Ozymandias included a reading of the ideal poem.Writer Alan Moore named a superhero in the comic book miniseries Watchmen after Ozymandias, and overtly quoted the poem and the alternative shake up group Sisters of Mercy wrote the song Ozymandias which appeared on the B side of the 1987 single Dominion/Mother Russia from the album Floodland.Short excerpts of the poem, or references to its title, have appeared in a variety o f other contexts including the set for the Closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games on 12 August 2012.