Ozymandias

            
             Ozymandias to express to us that possessions do not mean immortality. He used very strong imagery and irony to get his point across throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and ironic pictures in our minds, Shelley was trying to explain that no one lives forever, and nor do their possessions. Shelley expresses this poem's moral through a vivid and ironic picture. A shattered stone statue with only the legs and head remaining, standing in the desert, the face is proud and arrogant, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read(lines, 4-6). On the pedestal of the statue, there are these words, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"(Lines, 10-11). However, all that surrounds the statue is a desert. This poem is written to express to us that possessions don't mean immortality, the king who seemed to think that his kingdom would remain under his statue's haughty gaze forever, ironically teaches us this through his epitaph. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!(Line, 11) becomes good advice, though in an opposite meaning than the king intended, for it comes to mean that despite all the power and might one acquires in the course of their life, material possessions will not last forever. In the end, the King's works are nothing, and the lines inscribed upon his statue are a sermon to those who read it. This is a poem about art. Shelley used imagery and a very impressive ironical way to write this poem. Basically, the poem is divided into two parts; the first eight lines are describing an ancient decayed sculpture seen by a traveler. The last six lines however talk about the words on the pedestal and the desolate surroundings; he contrasts the great sculpture with the surrounding emptiness, which gave a stronger feeling about the poem. In Shelley's work, it described the visage sneer of cold command(Line, 5).