Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,Īnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone If you haven’t read “Ozymandias,” here’s the brief sonnet in full: Though short, Shelley’s sonnet is a powerful reflection on the inevitable decline of manmade works and of humanity’s tendency toward false pretensions of enduring greatness. Smith’s poem uses the same title with a more traditional rhyme scheme, but it’s Shelley’s poem that continues to captivate audiences today. Shelley wrote “Ozymandias” during a friendly competition with friend and fellow poet Horace Smith. Ozymandias was the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharoah Ramesses II, whose statue had been recently acquired by the British Museum. This Percy Bysshe Shelley quote comes from his 1818 sonnet, “Ozymandias.” We recently wrote a brief biography of Mary Shelley, the young author of Frankenstein, and thought we’d continue our exploration of the famous Shelleys with some poignant words from her husband. Happy Words Wednesday! Today we’re looking at one of the most famous works by English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. (From the Columbia Encyclopedia (2001), taken from ).Classic Literature Quotes Words Wednesday On July 8, 1822, Shelley was drowned while sailing in the Bay of Spezia, near Lerici. By this time their household consisted of their own three children and Mary’s half-sister Claire Claremont and her daughter Allegra (whose father was Lord Byron). The following year Shelley and Mary left England and settled in Italy. In 1817 Harriet’s parents obtained a decree from the lord chancellor stating that Shelley was unfit to have custody of his children. After Harriet Shelley’s suicide in 1816, Shelley and Mary officially married. Laon and Cynthna appeared in 1817 but was withdrawn and reissued the following year as The Revolt of Islam it is a long poem in Spenserian stanzas that tells of a revolution and illustrates the growth of the human mind aspiring toward perfection. However, in 1815 Shelley’s grandfather died and left him an annual income. During their first year together they were plagued by social ostracism and financial difficulties. In 1814 Shelley left England for France with Mary Godwin, the daughter of William Godwin. His first important poem, Queen Mab, privately printed in 1813, set forth a radical system of curing social ills by advocating the destruction of various established institutions. ![]() Shelley’s life continued to be dominated by his desire for social and political reform, and he was constantly publishing pamphlets. Supported reluctantly by their fathers, the young couple traveled through Great Britain. The same year Shelley eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook, by whom he eventually had two children, Ianthe and Charles. In 1811 he and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg published their pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, which resulted in their immediate expulsion from the university. The son of a prosperous squire, Shelley entered Oxford in 1810, where readings in philosophy led him toward a study of the empiricists and the modern skeptics, notably William Godwin. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass any of my works." In Shelley's sonnet, the mere passage of time and the ravages of something as simple as sand combine to mock such human pretensions. On one statue in his honor an inscription reads, "I am Ozymandias, King of kings. ![]() Ozymandias is the Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II, who might have been the pharaoh whom Moses encountered. ![]() The lone and level sands stretch far away. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frownĪnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Who said:-Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
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