Student Essay on Analysis of Ozmandias

Analysis of Ozmandias

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Essay

Percy Bysshe Shelley is a nineteenth century English poet. I read his Ozmandias poem. Ozmandias is a sonnet with fourteen lines and a specific pattern and rhythm. It was written as a friendly and informal poetry competition with John Keats in 1817. The poetry topic was Egypt. At the time, pieces from the empire of several Egyptian kings named Ramses were put on display in the British Museum in London. Ramses was also the legend Egyptian king.

It has no traditional sonnet form. The rhyme scheme was peculiar to a sonnet of his era. Rhyme scheme is "ABABACDCEDEFEF." Shelley mocked the great Ramses II in the poem, because he built up this huge kingdom on the backs of workers only to have it now in shambles. Ozmandias transcends literal explanation, cloaks itself in irony with more than a hint. Theme of the poem was nostalgia for the past. Idea that things change and nothing lasts nor will stay in its original glory forever.

This poem demonstrates me that things change and they rarely, if ever, stay the same, reminds of the temporalness of impact and influence. This applies today as well as then. I offer as evidence: Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, or George W. Bush. Nothing lasts, time doesn't care, nor does the desert.