Percy Bysshe Shelleys Ozymandias Essay -- Ozymandias Essays

Percy Bysshe Shelleys Ozymandias 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 gravel of contemplating enormous heights and depths but also the experience of being dislocated from other humans (Ferguson 339). Both of these themes figure prominently in Ozymandias. The verse form opens with a mysterious traveller 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 demand 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 outdoor(a) location, on might assume its destructi on was due to an act of nature. The legs of the statue atomic number 18 described as vast (2), while the ruins are a enormous Wreck (13) both descriptions refer to the concept of the sublime as fearsome and terrifying. The vast and trunkless legs of stone (2), along with the pedestal, are the only parts of the statue left(p) 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 warn against excessive pride, a discussion of the negative sublime, or allusion to an unhappy marriage, the item 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. Shelleys Mont Blanc What the deal Said. Romantic Poetry. Ed. Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff. hot 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.