Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Summary, Analysis & Themes

Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Summary, Analysis & Themes

“Ozymandias” is a sonnet composed by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. Written as part of a friendly poetry contest, Shelley published it in 1818 under the pen name Glirastes in The Examiner. The title refers to an alternate name for the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, and the poem serves to depict the fleeting nature of political power while praising art's capacity to immortalize the past. Breaking from traditional sonnet form and rhyme scheme, the poem reflects Shelley’s inclination to challenge conventions in both politics and poetry. Ozymandias Poem BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 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…