They would have danced around the symbolic shaming that comes from shattering the image of the once powerful. Perhaps an uprising of slaves or political outcasts overthrew the ruler, the cruel reigning sovereign, on his Ides of March.
#OZYMANDIAS PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY FULL#
Retribution: Although small towns shrivel under the impersonal forces of economics and racial injustice, much destruction is deliberate, as vengeance flows full in our veins. All civilizations have prided themselves on their achievements – Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! – but most of them collapsed or were toppled. All is desert in the poem around what was once a vibrant and lush city. The destruction reminds us of the salting of Carthage after the Romans conquered it. Certainly the grand carving on a pedestal honored a particular autocratic leader (Ozymandias), but that proud structure also represented a powerful city-state, fiefdom or empire. From this short poem, it seems less likely that attackers pulled down the magnificent monument than that the implacable undermining of nature did the deed because soldiers or others pillaging the grounds would probably have defaced the proud visage.Ĭivilization Falls: A metaphorical message about destruction permeates this poem. After all, the narcissistic king would have adorned his trophy statute with jewels or precious metals. If soldiers sacked the palace and this icon, they might have looted the torso and hauled it away. If an earthquake or a massive fire had attacked the monument, its pieces would have fallen nearby and likely remain visible. Given that the trunk has disappeared, it is more likely that hands of humans rather than the hand of God did the demolition. A victorious invading army may have razed the palace, my Works, and the surrounding lands ruled by Ozymandias in so doing they may have triumphantly and symbolically toppled that fallen leader’s bragging statue. Humans Wreaking: The propensity of humans to violently destroy others’ lives and property cannot be overstated. Destruction treads with nature’s march toward reduction of all things. Storm waves reshape beaches high winds topple trees and decapitate houses blazing heat melts roads and hailstorms smash windows.
No matter how grand the structures of humans, nothing can stand up to the forces of nature, encroaching dunes, or the other gradual erosions of time. With the legs fractured at the knees and the statue collapsed in what is now desert, but it is possible that the insidious effects of wind, rain, heat and temblor doomed the monument. Nature: We cannot know from the poem what caused The lone and level sands stretch far away.” Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,Īnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Who said - “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone The poem offers many interpretations, but here we will pay attention to the theme of destruction. What was once a grand and imposing monument in honor of a powerful King of Kings now lies scattered in rubble.
In Shelley’s poem, a traveler describes the colossal Wreck of an imperious ruler’s once-magnificent statue.
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