Explication Essay – “Ozymandias”

One of the few constants throughout human history has been the consistent rise and fall of empires. No matter how powerful, all of history’s greatest dynasties have eventually come to an end. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”, is a commentary on the inevitability of time and the fleeting nature of power.

The first line introduces two characters, one of whom is the speaker, who narrates in the first person. The description of the second character– a “traveller from an antique land”– immediately distinguishes the speaker from the story he is about to hear (Shelley, Line 1). The use of “traveller” conveys the foreign, exotic experiences and stories that this character will bring to the speaker. The speaker uses “antique” to describe the land from which the traveller originates, ascribing two separate but related connotations to the “land”. “Antique” is heavily tied to old age, which is representative of an ancient world, or perhaps an empire that was once great. The word also implies that the land holds some sort of value, being not only ancient but also a place of importance. By immediately introducing the perspective of a traveler from an unknown place, Shelley distances the audience from the ensuing story, emphasizing its obscurity and building a mysterious aura around it. 

Shelley begins to introduce the story within the poem, as the traveler depicts “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone”, standing “in the desert” (2-3). The traveler is describing a statue whose legs are missing a body. The vastness of the legs and their material being stone implies a great level of importance associated with the statue, as it was not only a project of large scale but also one that was presumably meant to last forever. However, no “trunk”, or body, accompanies the legs; combined with the previous line setting the scene in an ancient land, the audience can assume that time has taken its toll on the statue, and deterioration has set in. Shelley contrasts the permanence of vast blocks of stone with the obscurity of an ancient relic, establishing obscurity surrounding this ancient land in the first line before revealing that in the past, this land was not so obscure at all.

The next few lines lend more insight into what the statue once stood for, as Shelley attributes a fallen face to the legs. The audience gains more insight into the time frame and the context surrounding the statue, as the traveler tells of a “shattered visage” that is “half sunk” in the sand (3-4). The visage, belonging to the same statue as the vast legs, is presumably of similar scale. Therefore, the face being half-sunken into the sand implies that the sands of the desert have been gradually consuming the statue’s face for a prolonged period. This detail adds to the image of an ancient statue, and Shelley builds on this by lending some clues into who the statue depicts by describing its “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” (5). The stoic, commanding facial expression carved into the statue emanates a sense of power, contrasting heavily with its decrepit, present-day state. At this point in the poem, Shelley’s message becomes more clear. The person being represented by the statue was commanding in their time and wanted to establish dominance with a large statue and a controlling facial expression. However, the force of time ultimately outlasted any desires from the historical figure in the statue, establishing how minuscule the importance of a single person or era is when compared to the grand scale of time. Shelley ensures that the emotions projected onto the person in the statue are accurate, as the traveler says “its sculptor well those passions read” (6). In this line he comments on the ability of art to transcend time, serving as an eternal window into historical moments. Shelley reiterates this point in the next lines, describing the face of the statue, saying “stamped on these lifeless things / The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;” (7-8). The word “stamped” supports the idea of an accurate and everlasting representation of the person’s face. The “hand” that mocked them could be in reference to the artist “mocking” the ruler in a demeaning, or it could be interpreted in a more neutral way as just creating the work, in the same way, an architect “mocks up” a blueprint. The “heart” referenced here refers to the heart of the ruler, whose demeanor has been etched into stone. Shelley is establishing the permanence of art in juxtaposition with the fleeting nature of power, as the ruler is no longer exalted but his passion is forever captured in stone to be observed forever. The semi-colon at the end of line 8 marks the end of the first section, as Shelley transitions into concluding the story he established in the first eight lines. 

Shelley confirms what has been alluded to in the past lines, confirming the bravado and arrogance of the ruler depicted in the statue. The traveler describes the pedestal on which the statue stands, reciting the words written on it: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; / Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10-11). Shelley attributes a name– Ozymandias– that would have been foreign to anyone outside of ancient Egypt, highlighting the same sentiment of the first line, and emphasizing that the king’s name has long since been forgotten. By referring to himself as the “King of Kings” and bragging about his works, telling “ye Mighty” to “despair”, Ozymandias is portrayed as an individual who thought of himself as all-powerful and indestructible. Shelley immediately counters Ozymandias’ brash thinking by describing how irrelevant the statue, and by association Ozymandias, truly is. In the last three lines, Shelley describes how “Nothing beside remains: round the decay”, stressing that no one finds the statue to be worth worshipping or sticking around for (12). Shelley describes the statue as a “colossal wreck”, displaying the intended grandeur of the statue and its subsequent fall in just two words (13). He also uses alliteration in lines 13 and 14 to describe the “boundless and bare” and “low and level” sands of the desert. This description reinforces the statue being alone in the desert, as Ozymandias has lost all influence and fame; no one is left to revere him, and the only witnesses of his once-great statue are distant travelers. The story of Ozymandias is a cautionary tale from Shelley, warning against ignorance and promoting humility. If a king as great as Ozymandias was no match against the sands of time, it can be assumed that any reign of power will not last forever, and the human experience is nothing more than a blip on the universe’s eternal radar.