The Ruler of Air

Form refers to the configuration of an object, in which poetry form is the configuration of words that assists to convey the poet's message.

The poem, Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley does not follow the form of Petrarchan sonnets. Instead, Shelley's sonnet changes the rhyme scheme to follow ABABACDCEDEFEF with iambic pentameter.

"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.'

My translation of these lines is that there exists a statue ruined in the sands of Egypt, yet there still is a part of statue that is in a relatively good condition where the words can read that a ruler used to rule the land there. The statue would have stood in the stand to show clearly to the people in the area during that time period who possessed all the power and who ruled the land. Ironically, nothing of the "works" remains standing and upright besides the half sunken face. Ozymandias represents the idea of man's arrogance and pride in comparison to the universe or time which is represented by the sand.

The last few lines of the poem describes the writing that was on the statue before it had collapsed and buried underneath the sand after many years it was first sculpted. Ozymandias is another name for Ramese the Great. Ozymandias challenges God saying that Ozymandias is more powerful and of rule over the people of Egypt when he has written on his statue "king of kings." This part of the poem possesses a great amount of irony because he says "look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" However, all of Ozymandias works are ruined and only sand can be seen surrounding the statue.

The form of the last five lines of the sonnet put an emphasis on the irony of the entire poem. The opposition and sarcasm reveals that Ozymandias and his works were not immortal because niether his works or his people are still among the living to tell how powerful a leader he was, instead, the collasal wreck displays how Ozymandias could not withstand against God and mother nature after challenging that he was the king of all kings. In further analysis Ozy comes from the Greek word "ozium" which can be translated in to the word air. Also, mandias comes from the Greek word "mandate," which means to rule. Therefore, Ozymandias means the ruler of air, or with further intepretation, the ruler of nothing. In the case of Ramese the Great, he is the ruler of nothing because his works have all been destroyed by nature. Shelley tries to convey the message through Ozymandias the idea of humanity's pride as well as hubris.

Shelley manipulates his form through the usage of multiple speakers. The first line of the poem reads: "I met a traveller from an antique land," which suggests the idea that the speaker of the poem is from a different time period from when Ozymandias was alive and ruling Egypt. The distancing of the speaker of the poem and Ozymandias contributes to the effect that Ozymandias accomplishments and works have been fading into the past. Since Ozymandias is being told from person to person, the stories being passed on to others allows Ozymandias to become more obscure in which he no longer possesses any power.

The form of Ozymandias does not follow the forms of the Petrarchan or the Shakespearean sonnets. While Shelley avoids following the same rhyme scheme such as ending the sonnet with a couplet of GG, Shelley had a purpose for taking a step away from the known sonnets of his time. The idea was to have an imperfect sonnet to provide an emphasis on his mockery of the perfect image of man.

The name Ozymandias is used in many other works including contemporary writing such as comic books and movies. Ozymandias is utilized over again in the Watchmen series which also critiques about the arrogance of mankind. Ozymandias is a meaningful named used to convey the idea of the hubris of man in many different types of works popular in culture today.