Percy Bysshe Shelleys Ozymandias Essay -- Ozymandias Essays

Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In "Ozymandias," Percy Bysshe Shelley uses a ruined statue of Ramses II to illustrate the negative aspects of the sublime.   Edmund Burke identified as sublime "the experience of contemplating enormous heights and depths but also the experience of being isolated from other humans" (Ferguson 339).   Both of these themes figure prominently in "Ozymandias."      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem opens with a mysterious "traveler from an antique land" (1) describing the demolished statue of Ozymandias (Ramses II).   The traveler serves as the human consciousness required to give force to the ideas of the destructiveness of nature and the annihilation of mankind.   Because the human mind can attribute destructiveness to nature, nature needs humans for it to be perceived as destructive and to continue to be destructive (Ferguson 339).   As Shelley does not state specifically how the statue was destroyed, and given its remote location, on might assume its destruction was due to an act of nature.   The legs of the statue are described as "vast" (2), while the ruins are a "colossal Wreck" (13); both descriptions refer to the concept of the sublime as awe-inspiring and terrifying.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The "vast and trunkless legs of stone" (2), along with the pedestal, are the only parts of the statue left standing; "near them, on the sand/half sunk, a shattered visage lies" (3 - 4).   The "shattered visage" might be seen as a form of depersonalization, an illustration that mortals are insignificant and powerless when compared to nature.   Even though Ozymandias is a king, he is nothing in the eyes ... ...ether a warning against excessive pride, a discussion of the negative sublime, or allusion to an unhappy marriage, the fact remains that this poem is an excellent piece worthy of inclusion in the canon of British literature.   The imagery in the poem, as well as its accessibility, make it readily enjoyable by any reader.       Works Cited    Ferguson, Frances.   "Shelley's 'Mont Blanc':   What the Mountain Said."   Romantic Poetry.   Ed. Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff.   New Brunswick:   Rutgers UP, 1993.    "Percy Bysshe Shelley."   The Norton Anthology of English Literature.   Ed. M.H. Abrams.   New York:   W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.   698 - 701.    Shelley, Percy Bysshe.   "Ozymandias." .The Norton Anthology of English Literature.   Ed. M.H. Abrams.   New York:   W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.   725 - 6.