Meaninglessness of Power : Ozymandias by Shelly

Ozymandias is my favorite sonnet and I will share a little secret with you. I have not written any articles on one of my passions and I make a beginning today. The passion I am referring to is - Egyptian civilization and history. This time around I combine 3 passions of mine- Literature, Egyptian History and writing. (I must be in heaven!).

Not to worry, I won't make this a boring history lecture. But I want to discuss the eternal relevance of Percy B. Shelley's beautiful sonnet 'Ozymandias'.

For those of you who don't know too much about Egyptian history, this is the gist of it. Ozymandias is the Greek name of 'Ramesses The Great' Or 'Ramesses II'. Remember the Pharaoh who was responsible for the rock temples of Abu Simbel or the Ramesseum? Well, Ozymandias is said to be one of the greatest Egyptian Pharaohs there ever was.

Percy B. Shelley wrote the poem 'Ozymandias' in the 1800s, as a piece to compete with his friend, Horace Smith.

The beauty of the sonnet 'Ozymandias' is that it is an eternal truth. No wonder it is so popular and famous, and no wonder it is my favorite sonnet. In a sense it shows what life is all about. No matter how powerful we are in life, how successful we get, how rich we get.. we take nothing with us.

Here is 'Ozymandias':

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd 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.

The central theme of 'Ozymandias' is 'power in all its glory', can still become meaningless with time. In this sonnet the 'King of Kings' is very smartly phrased. With 'Nothing' that remains, Ozymandias is the 'King Of Nothing'.

So the next time one of us feels kind of sad that we don't have enough, remember this sonnet and smile. Even a billionaire is just like us, when the final day arrives. Nothing and no one lasts for ever, be it joy, sorrow, health or wealth..you or that billionaire and yes even his empire.

Source: http://holyjoe.net/poetry/shelley.htm