Ozymandias and Immortality

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Ozymandias and Immortality Ozymandias expresses to us that possessions do not mean immortality.

Percy Shelley uses lots of imagery and irony to get his point across

throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and ironic pictures in our

minds, Shelley explains that no one lives forever, and neither do

their possessions.

Shelley expresses this poem’s moral through a vivid and ironic

picture: “On the pedestal of the statue, there are these words, ‘My

name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and

despair!’”(10-11). However, all that surrounds the statue is a desert.

This poem is written to express to us that possessions don’t mean

immortality, the king who seemed to think that his kingdom would

remain under his statue’s arrogant gaze forever, ironically teaches us

this through his epitaph. Though in an opposite meaning than the king

intended, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (11) becomes

good advice because it comes to mean that despite all the power and

might one acquires in the course of their life, material possessions

will not last forever. In the end, the King’s works are nothing, and

the lines inscribed on his statue are a sermon to those who read it.

This poem is basically divided into two parts: the first eight lines

and the last six lines. The first eight lines are describing an

ancient decayed sculpture seen by a traveler. The last six lines

however talk about the words on the pedestal and the desolate

surroundings. He contrasts the great sculpture with the surrounding

emptiness, which brings a stronger feeling to the poem. When Shelley

writes about the “sneer of cold command” (5), you can imagine a very

conceited, arrogant pharaoh, commanding his people building this great

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