“Ozymandias”: Shelley’s Investigation in Permanence Through the use of Diction and Juxtapositio Travis Redmond College

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;/ Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10) demands the pedestal of the statue of the previously named ancient ruler. Out of context a casual passerby of the king’s shattered sculpted likeness might infer that Ozymandias was a powerful presence in the region, and that he had dominion over not only his loyal subjects, but abstract concepts like time and death. In context, knowing that his statue is now primarily rubble, abandoned and forgotten in the desert, one can recognize that it is Ozymandias who is in fact the one ruled by time. In the poem the speaker meets an unnamed traveler who tells of the rule of Ozymandias long ago, a legend which is contradicted by the crumbling statue the speaker stumbled upon in the desert. Percy Bysshe Shelley highlights this theme in the poem through the use of provocative diction and the juxtaposition of unlike things, communicating to the reader that nothing is permanent, and all is eventually lost to the stubborn march of time.

First, through the use of diction, Shelley presents Ozymandias as a concept of power and monarchial glory. This pays off later in the poem when the reader realizes that even the mighty Ozymandias is powerless against time,...