Ozymandias

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox poem "Ozymandias" (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell)Template:Sfn is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The ExaminerTemplate:Sfn 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,<ref name="Shelley1876" /> and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826.Template:Sfn

Origin

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.Template:Sfn Although the Younger Memnon did not arrive in London until 1821<ref>British Museum. Colossal bust of Ramesses II, 'The Younger Memnon'. Retrieved 26 November 2015.</ref>Template:Sfn the reputation of the statue fragment had preceded its arrival in Western Europe. European attempts to acquire the Template:Convert fragment had been made as early as 1798, when Napoleon's expedition unsuccessfully attempted to retrieve it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.Template:Sfn

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 becomes "a traveller from an antique land."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:EfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn

Shelley wrote the poem around Christmas in 1817<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Em dasheither in December that year or early January 1818.Template:Sfn The poem was printed in The Examiner,Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Multiple image Shelley's poem was published on 11 January 1818 under the pen name "Glirastes".Template:Sfn The name meant "lover of dormice", dormouse being his pet name for his spouse, author Mary Shelley.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Smith's sonnet of the same name was published several weeks later.Template:Sfn 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,<ref name="Shelley1819">Template:Cite book</ref> which was republished in 1876 under the title "Sonnet. Ozymandias" by Charles and James Ollier<ref name="Shelley1876">Reprinted in

Template:Cite book </ref> and in the 1826 Miscellaneous and Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Benbow, both in London.Template:Sfn

Analysis

The prominent theme of the poem is the inevitable decline of rulers and their hubris.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the poem, despite Ozymandias' grandiose ambitions, the power turns out to be ephemeral.

Reception and impact

The poem has been cited as Shelley's best-known<ref name=":02">Template:Cite news</ref> and is generally considered one of his best works,Template:Sfn though it is sometimes considered uncharacteristic of his poetry.Template:Sfn An article in Alif cited "Ozymandias" as "one of the greatest and most famous poems in the English language".Template:Sfn Stephens considered that the Ozymandias Shelley created dramatically altered the opinion of Europeans on the king.Template:Sfn It has been translated into Russian, as Shelley was an influential figure in Russia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The influence of the poem can be found in other works, including Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

"Ozymandias" has been included in many poetry anthologies,Template:Sfn<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref> particularly school textbooks, such as AQA's GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Anthology,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> where it is often included because of its perceived simplicity and the relative ease with which it can be memorized.Template:Sfn Several poets, including Richard Watson Gilder and John B. Rosenma, have written poems titled "Ozymandias" in response to Shelley's work.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name="Jordan1921">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

See also

• Vanitas

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

• Rodenbeck, John (2004). "Travelers from an Antique Land: Shelley's Inspiration for 'Ozymandias'". Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, no. 24 ("Archeology of Literature: Tracing the Old in the New"), 2004, pp. 121–148.
• Johnstone Parr (1957). "Shelley's 'Ozymandias'". Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. VI (1957).
• Waith, Eugene M. (1995). "Ozymandias: Shelley, Horace Smith, and Denon". Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. 44, (1995), pp. 22–28.
• Richmond, H. M. (1962). "Ozymandias and the Travelers". Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. 11, (Winter, 1962), pp. 65–71.
• Bequette, M. K. (1977). "Shelley and Smith: Two Sonnets on Ozymandias". Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. 26, (1977), pp. 29–31.
• Freedman, William (1986). "Postponement and Perspectives in Shelley's 'Ozymandias'". Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 63–73.
• Edgecombe, R. S. (2000). "Displaced Christian Images in Shelley's 'Ozymandias'". Keats Shelley Review, 14 (2000), 95–99.
• Sng, Zachary (1998). "The Construction of Lyric Subjectivity in Shelley's 'Ozymandias'". Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 217–233.

External links

• Audiorecording of "Ozymandias" by the BBC.
• Ozymandias Summary, Themes, and Analysis
• Ozymandias – Annotated text + analyses aligned to Common Core Standards
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• The poem, set to music