Theme: What is longevity?
Upon reading the title of the poem, Ozymandias, I was bit perplexed; I have never heard of this historical name: Ozymandias. I researched the name and nothing appeared except for the poem. Furthermore, it is written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a well-known English poet. I have read this poem more than nineteen times, and every time I read it, I discovered something new about life, society, and longevity. The theme is while some things created by God may be longer lasting than others that are man-made, the shorter-lived and man-made ones might rise to a higher level of excellence than the longer-lived ones. In fact, the shorter-lived ones help tell the tale more efficiently: through the lens of a poem.
Upon reading the title of the poem, Ozymandias, I was bit perplexed; I have never heard of this name in history. I looked up the name and nothing came up except the poem. Furthermore, it is written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a well-known English poet. I have read this poem more than nineteen times, and every time I read it, I discovered something new about life, society, and longevity. The theme is while some things created by God may be longer lasting than others, the shorter-lived ones might rise to a higher level of excellence than the longer-lived ones. The shorter-lived ones help tell the tale more efficiently: through the lens of a poem.
The first question is who are the narrators? There are four narrators. The person recounting the poem is the first narrator. The person recounting the experience is the second: the “traveler from an antique land.” The third narrator is the sculptor. The last narrator is King Ozymandias. Did this traveler travel through time? He is from “an antique land.” Is he from a land that is antique because it has kept its antiquity: refusing modernization. One doesn’t know. The first narrator, who is a short-lived man, roughly 70 years maximum age, writes the poem for society to read and engage in the experience. The second narrator is telling the story as a tale and is not a poet. He is merely telling a tale. He told it to the right person: the latter. The poem is long lived. The story is long lived as well mainly because of the poem.
The poem starts out that “two vasts and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.” One knows for sure that stones and deserts outlive man for centuries: it is said that a stone can live for ages. Stones are different from small rocks. Furthermore, around these stones, “a shattered visage lies:” certainly the visage of a man. It is because these stones live for century that this traveler can tell this tale: probably not a time-traveler. The sculptor, “well those passions read.” There was a sculptor involved in the work of the visage: obvious. What passions? The frown on the visage is one. “The wrinkled lip” and “sneer of cold command” is another. This is a royal person with persons underneath him/her. The passions lived because of the sculptor. The sculptor is the third narrator. Each narrator is telling the story from a different angle. He puts his stamp on “these lifeless things.” Why? The reason is that he is getting paid to sculpt and not to tell a narrative: inadvertently telling a story.
“On the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” The true protagonist is Ozymandias. He has risen to a high degree of excellence. Future generations found out about Ozymandias because of the sculptor, the narrator, and the poet. His name Ozymandias is not even found in the History books. All three are man-made and short-lived compared to the stones. Ozymandias, compels everyone to look on his works; both the mighty and the despair. He was a king of kings: a king having kings underneath him. "Nothing besides remains besides that colossal wreck."
It is said that King Tut of Egypt brought society hieroglyphics in Egypt. Hieroglyphics lead to standard reading which later on evolved to alphabetical reading. The engraving on the stone must have certainly been written in glyphs. No modern person knows of the name Ozymandias. Although the writing process is man-made, it is something that lasts forever if it is properly preserved. The story is told by a fourth narrator: King Ozymandias.
“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.” Isn’t that strange? What is the narrator of the story recounting? Ozymandias was great for a time period: not forever. Furthermore, his greatness lives past him because of the different narrators involved; literature is key provided that it uses the proper materials. It lives on. With the advent of the digital age, provided that there is not a total collapse of society, the poem lives on line with many digital copies.
Ozymandias is a beautiful poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was the first poem that I read that was not about love, or something too emotive. I learned an important lesson from the poem: longevity sometimes need help.