Ozymandias

In the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley there is a theme that nothing lasts. This is shown by the shattering of the statue that once stood tall. “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the dessert” (Shelley 721). The statue or sculpture has been destroyed somewhere along the line. “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies” (721). The sculptor of the sculpture was very proud of his work. He wrote on a pedestal, ‘”My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Might, and despair!’” (721). He was very proud of his sculpture. Obviously, the sculpture could not stand the test of time and is now broken and decaying in the dessert. It is no longer a proud sculpture, but broken pieces in the sand. The one thing in the poem that can stand the test of time is this; the passionate words the sculptor spoke while he was sculpting. “tell that its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive” (721). There are several different speakers in this poem. The poem starts out with an unknown speaker who met a traveler. Then, the traveler talks about the sculptor. Lastly, the sculptor’s voice is heard. This contributes to the theme because the first two men are talking about something in the past that did not last.