Question

What message might the poet be trying to express with this poem? Be sure to consider where the sculpture of Ozymandias was found, and what kind of condition the sculpture was in when the traveler found it. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,

Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" carries a message that existence and power are temporary. In the excerpt above, only the legs remained of what once was a colossal statue of an ancient king. The power that king once had is now gone, along with his cities, subjects, and fortune.

Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

There is nothing left to remind us of the greatness that king once had except for the statue's remains. This is a second message the poem conveys. Art, unlike life itself, is permanent. The artistic representation of what that king once was is the only memory, able to "survive, stamped on these lifeless things."