"Ozymandias" - Ashes to Ashes

Things disappear. Material possessions eventually are lost, either to carelessness or time. Anything that can be touched, physically felt, held in your hands will eventually break down and return to the earth. This is the message the speaker in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” is trying to get across. The imagery of the statue of Ramses II, one of Egypt’s greatest rulers laying “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,” (line 4) creates a picture of a dynasty long gone. The traveler has told the speaker that “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone/Stand in the desert” (2,3) creating a vision of nothing but sand with a broken statue jutting out. This alone evokes a feeling of loneliness which is echoed in the final line of the poem “The lone and level sands stretch far away” (14). Shelley appears to be writing a warning to the world that no matter who you are or how powerful you were in your lifetime, you too will end up returning to dust. The story that the traveler tells the speaker will live on, as it is passed from one person to another. The poem and its artistic value will live on, as it is read by countless people throughout the ages.