S: Statue
P: I met a man who was traveling from an old, distant country
He told me that in his country there were two pillars made of stone
They stand in the dessert, and an object lays near them, buried in the sand
It is an almost buried statue of a frowning man
His countenance is a cruel, angry sort of sneer
This countenance is how the sculpture felt towards the man
These feelings are all that show of the long dead people
It is the sculptors feelings which are left after all this time
On the stand which the statue sat are these words
“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings,
Look at everything I have accomplished, how great I am and how inferior you are”
Everything that once surrounded the statue is gone
His kingdom and civilization is gone, only the statue remains
All that is really left is sand
L: Imagery, Allegory, Tone
O: A statue in the dessert of a long dead and long hated king
T: solemn, poignant, blunt
T: Far in the future it will not be what you accomplished that is remembered, but who you were as a person.
T: His name being the title, and all that is really left is his name and the negative emotions associated with it.
S: The man who was recounting a travelers tale
Paragraph:
Percy Bysshe Shelly’s “Ozymandias” takes imagery to pull together a picture which highlights a true tragedy driven by human nature, the tragedy of one caring only for materialistic accomplishments whilst leaving behind a hated and bitter legacy, for it is actually only who they are that is remembered in the end. Using the desolate and empty expanse of desert, Shelly paints a poignant image of a material world that has fallen into a forgotten disrepair. Rising from these tombs of sand is a sneering statue with the inscription of a once great king, though it is only his horrid, hated face that remains. Despite a clear etching of his greatness, the image of the broken, angry statue all alone in the desert sets the scene for Shelly’s theme. It is through this drowned, fractured desolation that the contrast is truly shown, for all his grandeur is gone, all that remains is the sculptor’s projected feelings of the people. This being obvious feelings of disgust and hate, that is all that the “King of kings” is remembered for. In this manner, the image Shelly paints truly encompasses the theme, for as the reader is left with the image of a man twisted by fate, they are able to see through Shelly’s vibrant illustration that what matters in the end is not what one accomplishes, but the character of the one who exists.