Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem "Ozymandias," written in 1817, is a sonnet in the Italian style, written in iambic pentameter. Using the traditional 14-line format, the poem combines an octave with a sestet to tell the ironic story of Egyptian King Ramses' hollow claim to immortality.
The irony of Ramses' (called Ozymandias in Shelley's sonnet) claim to fame is that although the King brags of his everlasting greatness and vast kingdom, nothing remains. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" (line 10). Ozymandias is addressing his words to other leaders who believe they are as mighty as he was, telling them to behold his works as the most glorious. The irony appears in the first three words of the next line: "Nothing beside remains." All of the past king's works and accomplishments have turned to dust, becoming part of the vast nothingness of the desert. This is made clear in line 14, the final line of the sonnet: "Lone and level sands stretch far away;" the landscape of the desert sand is more immense and lasting than Ozymandias' kingdom. Neither he nor his kingdom was immortal, in spite of his belief that his works would last forever. This is the climax of the sonnet, made more powerful by the octave that acts as a build up to the poem's theme.
The poem is built around the metaphor of a ruined statue of Ozymandias in the desert, an implied comparison between the arrogant boast of a great political ruler and the reality of the passage of time. Nature prevails, not dead rulers.
The narrator or speaker of the sonnet did not see the statue himself. He recalls meeting a traveler "from an antique land" (line 1) who describes the ruins of a monumental statue he saw in the desert of his native country, and the meaning conveyed by the statue. The meaning is found in the sculptor's original rendering, as well as the ruined remains. The legs of the statue are "vast and trunkless," and n...