Ozymandias: A Poem to Outlast Empires Great and powerful men have risen from the earth throughout history conquering lands, revolutionizing the world through their writings, discoveries, ideologies, arts, and honorable lives. Yet those same men were confined within an observed yet inexplicable and indefinite phenomenon, a hidden yet eminently present dimension and seemingly infinite continuum in which all of mankind have been and will be enslaved by… time. Time has witnessed every rise and fall of every empire, every discovery and every secret of the world, and every beginning and every end of every man that has ever lived. It has trounced every great and powerful man forcing them to their knees and has had no mercy on them leaving them empty-handed …show more content…
A pedestal. Technically a pedestal is normally placed at the platform of an effigy, but symbolically speaking a pedestal represents a high honor and a belonging to prestigious power since it contains the words that define the person in his/her entirety. As the reader can clearly observe there is an escalating tone to the poem, gradually gaining more and more momentum. After reading the pedestal one can just image the great authority and power, but especially his arrogance and boastfulness. “Look on my works”, such an ironic statement since all that is left is a shattered visage and some stone legs. And at the end of the phrase the word “despair” appears, one of the few words that describe emotion in this poem. “Despair ends up being such a powerful word engraving the ultimate level of self-confidence and narrow mindedness. However, that idea of greatness and supremacy that has been building up from the beginning of the poem is immediately juxtaposed with the words: “nothing beside remains.” There is a dramatic shift, a transition that is clearly labeled by the word “nothing.” “Nothing”… What a way for Shelley to escalate, making the reader ride up the rollercoaster up and up and up until all of a sudden it goes crashing straight down with no time to even take a breath or meditate. This I believe is brilliantly constructed since there is an evident comparison to death. Death can be as brutal as this. When one least expects it, death comes creeping in without leaving one time to even think. Surely, Ozymandias never expected such a great loss and such great irony. The picture is now focused on the “nothing”, “the lone and level sands” that “stretch far away.” And there is a focus on distance in “far away.” Just like our lives, our days are counted but it is too far out of reach for us to grasp. It is the sands of