Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The speaker meets a traveller who describes a broken stone statue in the desert, its shattered face still bearing a sneer of command. The pedestal names Ozymandias as king of kings and commands the mighty to look on his works and despair, but nothing remains beside the wreck except bare sands.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Sonnet, Political Poetry · 174 words
First lines
I met a traveller from an antique land / Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert... 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.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines move from a traveller's description of a broken statue to its boastful inscription and the empty desert surrounding it.
- Political Poetry — The carved sneer of command and the king's claim to supremacy contrast with the destruction of his monument and the absence of his works.
Tags
ruined monuments · royal power · pride · desert · sculpture · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
Ozymandias is listed on Textopian as a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Political Poetry
- Length: 174 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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