Ozymandias

Ozymandias

"Ozymandias" ( OZ-im-AN-dee-əs) is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner of London.

The poem was the result of a friendly competition between Shelley and fellow poet Horace Smith, using the subject of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, Ozymandias being the Greek name for the pharaoh. Both Shelley's poem and Smith's "Ozymandias" explore the ravages of time to which the legacies of even the greatest are subject.

Ozymandias was included the following year in Shelley's collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, and in the 1826 compilation Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Origin

Ozymandias

The statue fragment known as the Younger Memnon in the British Museum

Shelley began writing the poem "Ozymandias" in 1817, upon anticipation of the arrival in Britain of the Younger Memnon, a head-and-torso fragment of a statue of Ramesses II acquired by Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni from the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramesses II at Thebes. Although the Younger Memnon did not arrive in London until 1821 the reputation of the statue fragment had preceded its arrival in Western Europe. European attempts to acquire the 7.25-short-ton (6.58 t; 6,580 kg) fragment had been made as early as 1798, when Napoleon's expedition unsuccessfully attempted to retrieve it.

Shelley, who had explored similar themes in his 1813 work Queen Mab, was also influenced by Constantin François de Chassebœuf's book Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires (The Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires), first published in an English translation in 1792.

Writing, publication and text

Publication history

The banker and political writer Horace Smith spent the Christmas season of 1817–1818 with Percy and Mary Shelley. At this time, members of their literary circle would sometimes challenge each other to write competing sonnets on a common subject: Shelley, John Keats and Leigh Hunt wrote competing sonnets about the Nile around the same time. Shelley and Smith both chose a passage from the writings of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in Bibliotheca historica, which described a massive Egyptian statue and quoted its inscription: "King of Kings Ozymandias am I. If any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work." In Shelley's poem, Diodorus has been replaced by "a traveller from an antique land" whom Shelley metaphorically "met".

Shelley wrote the poem around Christmas in 1817—either in December that year or early January 1818. The poem was printed in The Examiner, a weekly paper published by Leigh's brother John Hunt in London. Hunt admired Shelley's poetry and many of his other works, such as The Revolt of Islam, were published in The Examiner.

Shelley's poem was published on 11 January 1818 under the pen name "Glirastes". The name meant "lover of dormice", dormouse being his pet name for his spouse, author Mary Shelley. Smith's sonnet of the same name was published several weeks later. Shelley's poem appeared on page 24 in the yearly collection, under Original Poetry. It appeared again in Shelley's 1819 collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, which was republished in 1876 under the title "Sonnet. Ozymandias" by Charles and James Ollier and in the 1826 Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Benbow, both in London.

Text

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. 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 on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Analysis

Ozymandias

The prominent theme of the poem is the inevitable decline of rulers and their hubris. In the poem, despite Ozymandias' grandiose ambitions, the power turns out to be ephemeral.

Reception and impact

Ozymandias

The poem has been cited as Shelley's best-known and is generally considered one of his best works, though it is sometimes considered uncharacteristic of his poetry. An article in Alif cited "Ozymandias" as "one of the greatest and most famous poems in the English language". Stephens considered that the Ozymandias Shelley created dramatically altered the opinion of Europeans on the king. It has been translated into Russian, as Shelley was an influential figure in Russia. The influence of the poem can be found in other works, including Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

"Ozymandias" has been included in many poetry anthologies, particularly school textbooks, such as AQA's GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Anthology, where it is often included because of its perceived simplicity and the relative ease with which it can be memorized. Several poets, including Richard Watson Gilder and John B. Rosenma, have written poems titled "Ozymandias" in response to Shelley's work.

Ozymandias gilberti, a giant fossil fish from the Miocene of California that is known only from a few fragmentary remains, was named by David Starr Jordan as an allusion to the poem.

The 14th episode of the final season of Breaking Bad, covering the dramatic downfall of protagonist Walter White, was titled "Ozymandias". A recitation of the poem by series lead Bryan Cranston was used in a trailer for the series.

Ozymandias is used In a promotional short film for Bungie's 2026 title "Marathon", read by Ben Starr playing as Durandal.