Ozymandias: On The Death Of A Civilization

Ozymandias: On the Death of a Civilization Throughout history, there has always been the idea of a finite timespan to get things done. From the Epic of Gilgamesh, which shows the inevitability of death regardless of station, to the Roman practice of reminding conquering generals that they were mortal as a way of curbing their pride, the idea that a human being has a set amount of time to live is ubiquitous throughout history. Rarely, however, has this same outlook on life been applied to a civilization, as it is in Ozymandias by Percy Shelley, which illustrates the decay and ruination that is impossible for even the greatest of nations to avoid. Shelley begins the poem innocuously, telling of how the speaker has heard of the ruins from

The speaker says, “On the pedestal, these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair” (10-11). His “works,” which made the mighty tremble, are ruins now, just as all great civilizations will be in time. Even his own proud (and ironic) boast has to be engraved in stone to survive the centuries. Here is where the theme of decay and the fog of history seems to really be driven home. The man who styled himself “king of kings” is little more than a proud boast and a wrecked statue. The title also seems to be a little bit of a challenge to his own time, showing that even the greatest of kings of the greatest of nations could fall, so why should the monarchs of his own time consider themselves to be so important? From this point onward, Shelley starts to lead out of the poem, saying “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck” (12-13). It could be that he's referring to the ruins, or to Ozymandias, or even to the man's kingdom, as all of them could be equally supported by the theme and the wording. He concludes with, “The lone and level sands stretch far away” (14). Not only is the great pharaoh reduced to ruins, but there is no one around to even view said ruins. His description also leaves it somewhat unresolved, with the last words of the poem being “far away,” which tend to open rather than close the description of a location. This works to show as well that it’s not just this individual statue in this isolated area: It’s every statue in every kingdom, including Shelley's own, with the ravages of time sparing no one and the process, like the poem, never being entirely