Ozymandias: Man Is Momentary
Man is Momentary
English 102: Literature and Composition
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Turabian
Thesis
The poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley depicts the mediocrity of man, futility of his works, and his finite existence. He uses a decaying statue of Ozymandias the “King of Kings” as a symbol of man’s overwhelming pride and self-centered nature.
Outline
• Type:
• 14 line Sonnet
• Narrative
• Ironic
• Form
• ABABA CDCEDEFEF
• Iambic Pentameter
• Date
• 1817 (written and possible setting)
• Setting
• Random encounter with “a traveler from an antique land”
• Statue
• Ozymandias “King of Kings” (Significant) about a man who is now forgotten
• Location (Literal Setting)
• “in the desert”
• “half sunk”
• Description
• “shattered visage”
• “wrinkled lips”
• “sneer of cold command”
• Meaning (Symbolism)
• Broken and forgotten just like all things made by man
• History has forgotten all he did only remembers the location of the ruin
• Mood
• Ironic
• Once great statue is now just “two vast trunk less legs of stone”
• “colossal wreck”
• Ozymandias was supposed to be remembered forever, not likely
• Literary Devices Used
• Repetition
• Figures of Speech
• None
• Narrator
• Unknown
• Themes
• Man’s hubris nature
• History judges all
• Warning to Great Britain
Man is Momentary
The poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley depicts the mediocrity of man, futility of his works, and his finite existence. He uses a decaying statue of Ozymandias the “King of Kings” as a symbol of man’s overwhelming pride and self-centered nature. In the poem the unknown narrator has an encounter with a travel “from an antique land” who tells him of a crumbling statue.
This traveler describes the statue which is of the long dead tyrannical Egyptian Pharaoh Ozymandias who claimed to be “King of Kings”. This boast is countered by the “shatter visage” of the statue, the artisans once magnificent
English 102: Literature and Composition
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
Turabian
Thesis
The poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley depicts the mediocrity of man, futility of his works, and his finite existence. He uses a decaying statue of Ozymandias the “King of Kings” as a symbol of man’s overwhelming pride and self-centered nature.
Outline
• Type:
• 14 line Sonnet
• Narrative
• Ironic
• Form
• ABABA CDCEDEFEF
• Iambic Pentameter
• Date
• 1817 (written and possible setting)
• Setting
• Random encounter with “a traveler from an antique land”
• Statue
• Ozymandias “King of Kings” (Significant) about a man who is now forgotten
• Location (Literal Setting)
• “in the desert”
• “half sunk”
• Description
• “shattered visage”
• “wrinkled lips”
• “sneer of cold command”
• Meaning (Symbolism)
• Broken and forgotten just like all things made by man
• History has forgotten all he did only remembers the location of the ruin
• Mood
• Ironic
• Once great statue is now just “two vast trunk less legs of stone”
• “colossal wreck”
• Ozymandias was supposed to be remembered forever, not likely
• Literary Devices Used
• Repetition
• Figures of Speech
• None
• Narrator
• Unknown
• Themes
• Man’s hubris nature
• History judges all
• Warning to Great Britain
Man is Momentary
The poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley depicts the mediocrity of man, futility of his works, and his finite existence. He uses a decaying statue of Ozymandias the “King of Kings” as a symbol of man’s overwhelming pride and self-centered nature. In the poem the unknown narrator has an encounter with a travel “from an antique land” who tells him of a crumbling statue.
This traveler describes the statue which is of the long dead tyrannical Egyptian Pharaoh Ozymandias who claimed to be “King of Kings”. This boast is countered by the “shatter visage” of the statue, the artisans once magnificent
Bibliography: Hibbert, Christopher. George III: A Personal History. New York: Basic Books, 1911. Newman, Bob. A Guide to Verse Forms. November 13, 2010. http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/ (accessed April 16, 2012). Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Ozymandias." In Literature, by X.J. Kennedy, & Dana Gioia, 668. New York, New York: Longman, 2010. [ 4 ]. Bob Newman, “A Guide to Verse Forms”, http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/m (accessed, April 16, 2012) [ 5 ] [ 8 ]. George Hibbert, “George III: A Personal History”(New York, New York, 1999) p. 27.