Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” Percy Bysshe Shelley (p. 774) (1792-1822)

When he died in a boating accident at 29, Percy Bysshe Shelley was eulogized by fellow poet Lord Byron as “without exception the best and least selfish man I ever knew.” Yet the subject of this praise was a man whose disenchantment with the world was at least as great as his appreciation of its beauties. Shelley’s disenchantment, though, only led him to pursue the good more passionately. At once modest and intense, Shelley was a poet of rare gifts. He was also a passionate reformer who believed that his time had betrayed the ideal of a perfect society.

A Londer and Rebel Born into the British upper classes, Shelley was raised on a country estate in Sussex. He attended the finest schools, including the prestigious boarding school Eton, but he was never able to settle into the routine of a student. Instead, he spent most of his time wandering the countryside and performing private scientific experiments. At Oxford University, he became a friend of Thomas Jefferson Hogg, a student whose political views were as strong as his own. The friendship further fueled Shelley’s rebellious nature. When, with Hogg’s encouragement and support, Shelley published the radical tract The Necessity of Atheism, both he and Hogg were expelled from the university.

Love and Art The expulsion estranged Shelley from his father. Instead of going home, Shelley headed for London. There, he met Harriet Westbrook. An unhappy schoolgirl, Westbrook played on his sympathies with descriptions of her miserable situation at home and at school. She persuaded him to elope, and they married. The two traveled to Ireland, where Shelley tried unsuccessfully to “deliver the Irish people from tyranny.” Shelley’s development as a poet was already underway. In 1813, he had completed “Queen Mab,” his first important poem. The work explored ideas of social justice that Shelley had encountered in the philosopher William Godwin’s Political Justice. The views expressed by Shelley in the poem—that government and other institutions should be reshaped to conform to the will of the people—marks much of his subsequent poetry, even his nature poems.

Turmoil, Romance, and Tragedy Shelley’s marriage, meanwhile, was in trouble. Harriet felt that she could not keep up with her husband, and she had come to question his political ideals. Meanwhile, continuing his travels in radical intellectual circles, Shelley fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of William Godwin and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. After Harriet’s tragic death in 1816, Shelley and his beloved Mary Godwin married.

A Poet and an Outcast His radical politics, his tract about atheism, his separation from his first wife, his elopement— all helped make Shelley an outcast from his homeland. He and Mary eventually settled in Italy, where Byron, another famous exile, also lived. The friendship nourished the literary ambitions of all three. It was during a storytelling session with Shelley, Byron, and another friend that Mary Shelley was inspired to begin work on her famous novel Frankenstein. Shelley himself wrote many of his finest works in Italy, including “Ode to the West Wind,” “To a Skylark,” and his verse drama Prometheus Unbound (1820), a play predicting humanity’s eventual freedom from tyranny.

An Early Death Shelley never lived to see whether his dreams of social progress came true. Today, he is often referred to as the perfect poet of the Romantic Era. His intense response to life and his deep convictions about freedom justify that title.

Literary Analysis (p. 775) Imagery Imagery is descriptive language that re-creates sensory experience. Writers may use imagery to create metaphors and other figures of speech. Poetic imagery has these characteristics: • It appeals to any or all of the five senses. • It often creates patterns supporting a poem’s theme.

Comparing Literary Works By gathering together powerful images of the West Wind or of a skylark, Shelley links these natural beings to the striving of his own spirit. His images all depict concrete objects, such as leaves in the wind. Yet they also stir up longings and dreams. In the Romantic philosophy of the imagination, an image connects what is “outside” the mind with what is “inside,” linking nature and spirit. Compare the specific ideas Shelley expresses through images. Then, judge how well his images capture both the longings of his spirit and the thing being described. Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”

“Ozymandias” (p. 777) Percy Bysshe Shelley

Background The Ozymandias of Shelley’s poem is based on an actual Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II (“Ozymandias” was his name in Greek). Ramses II ruled during the thirteenth century B.C. and figures in the biblical story of Moses. He sponsored ambitious building projects and called for huge statues of himself to be built. According to an ancient story, one of these colossal statues was inscribed with this boast about his bold deeds: “I am Ozymandias, king of kings; if anyone wishes to know what I am and where I lie, let him surpass me in some of my exploits.”

I met a traveler 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, visage n. face. 5 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: 10 “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.