I think the message of the sonnet "Ozymandias" is that no matter how great or powerful someone is in life, everyone dies and everyone's memory is eventually erased by the ravages of history.
In the second part of the sonnet, the six-line sestet, Shelley reveals this message. After the inscription, the words "Nothing beside remains" (line 12) tell the audience that there is nothing left of the once-great ruler. The massive statue is referred...
I think the message of the sonnet "Ozymandias" is that no matter how great or powerful someone is in life, everyone dies and everyone's memory is eventually erased by the ravages of history.
In the second part of the sonnet, the six-line sestet, Shelley reveals this message. After the inscription, the words "Nothing beside remains" (line 12) tell the audience that there is nothing left of the once-great ruler. The massive statue is referred to as "decay" in line 12 and "Wreck" in line 13, creating an image of unrecognizable ruins, not only of the statue, but of the memory of Ozymandias, King of Kings. Then in the last two lines, Shelley describes the vast, empty desert wasteland surrounding the wreck: "...boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away." This creates an image of a massive, desolate desert, which makes the remains of the colossus seem small and insignificant, much like the remains of the memory of the tyrant Ozymandias in history.
As well as saying that tyrants are eventually forgotten, eroded from collective memory like a fallen stone statue in the desert sand, Shelley also seems to invite you to consider your own mortality. If a mighty ruler like Ozymandias's legacy can fade, what about our own legacy? Thus the message is a little bit existentialist: what is the point of life if nothing remains after death but perhaps a bit of stone with an inscription on it, like a headstone in a graveyard?
You can learn more about and read the poem with annotations here.
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