"Ozymandias"

The poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley demonstrates the theme nothing lasts forever. One of the speakers tells a story that was heard from a traveler. The traveler said he saw "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" (line 2). They were "a shattered visage..." (line 4). The expression on the face part of the stone was a "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command" (line 5). The statue was suppose to represent the amount of power the king held. On the statue it states how mighty and strong the ruler is. What is ironic is the statue is laying in pieces. This represents how no matter how strong something may appear, nothing lasts forever. The sculptor put all his passion into this piece of work. The emotions were all that survived the wreck. They are shown through the details of the work as well as the powerful words carved into it. The gloom of the desert can be felt when reading this poem. It is easy to imagine the endless miles of sand surrounding the ruins of what once was. It lets the imagination run wild thinking about what forces caused the downfall of the king's statue and possibly the civilization. There must have been great dissapointment from the creator of the statue.