Ozymandias: Transient Tyranny

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Transient Tyranny The tyrants of the early 19th century are dead. Many of their kingdoms do not exist today, and those that still exist have a changed form of government. Today, their rule is not honored, but studied in history to make sure that similar figures like those will never rise again. At the time, however, those tyrants’ subjects probably felt as if their reign would last forever and feared them. Some criticized tyrannical rule and were hopeful that the autocrat would eventually fall. In particular, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of these critics. As a writer of the Romantic era, his political writings featured strong emotions that conveyed important commentary on the state of society and government. In his poem, Ozymandias, Percy …show more content…

He “stood in line to inherit not only his grandfather’s considerable estate but also a seat in the parliament.” (“Percy Bysshe Shelley” para. 1). At the time, George III was ruling as the monarch, and Shelley later in his life was critical of his rulership. He went on to study at both Eton College and Oxford University. While at Oxford, along with his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg, he wrote “Necessity of Atheism”. (para. 1). This resulted in expulsion for both of them from their university. Most of his works, like this one in particular, were considered controversial and divisive, evoking “either the strongest vehemence or the warmest praise” (“Percy Bysshe Shelley” para. 1). When Shelley left college, he met Harriet Westbrook. After their marriage, he frequented liberal and literary circles and made many friends and associates there. According to the Poetry Foundation, he idolized William Godwin, a popular political and philosophical writer whose daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft, he later married after divorcing Harriet (para. 20). Shelley’s political ideas were reflected in many of his works, especially in his poem …show more content…

The poem begins from a first person point of view, with the narrator speaking of a traveler he met. In the second line, the poem switches to the traveler’s perspective, in which they vividly describe a crumbled statue he had seen in the desert. The descriptive words used to describe the king depicted by the statue, Ozymandias, were mostly negative traits, such as “…a shattered visage lies, whose frown, /And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” (4-5). These words imply that he was a corrupt or disliked ruler. The king’s passion is personified when the traveler says “Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things” (7-8), meaning that his rule is immortalized by this statue. The imagery of Ozymandias ends when the traveler describes what is written on the pedestal of the statue: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; / Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10-11). This shows how Ozymandias was an egotistical ruler, overconfident about his kingdom and

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