Stanza Analysis of:
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Stanza Analysis:
1. In the first seven lines of the poem, the speaker talks about how he met a traveller in an ancient land that described to him the remnants of a decrepit statue's legs and near them lay a stone head, whose visage can still be seen and read as if it were sculpted just days before.
2. In the last seven lines of the stanza, the speaker still speaks on the statue and gives new information that shows who the statue belonged to. The pedestal he reads attributes the statue to a king of old, Ozymandias and his empire that lay before him, but after all those years those words were written, his empire has crumbled into nothing but dust, and all of his accomplishments have died with him for they no longer stand to challenge the test of time. This statue is the only thing to stand so his legacy shan't be forgot. Basically his empire is dead and shows how his accomplishments are futile to the future.
Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/46565
Ozymandias picture: http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356208377l/2355014.jpg
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