Ozymadias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

    I met a Traveler from an antique land,
    Who said, "Two vast and trunk-less legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
    Which yet survive, stamped 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!
    No thing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.


This poem was written in 1818 by Percy Bysshe Shelley during a competition with his friend Horace Smith. He  chose the subject of the Ozymandias statue as at the time of the poem being written, the statue has been bought by an English museum. Shelley's work rejects literary, social and political conventions and focuses on emotions, meaning that he is classes as a romantic. This genre rejects the ideologies set by society and questions order. This poem was written in particular to question Ozymandias' power and focuses on the theme of transience as the statue was created for Ozymandias as a symbol of his power. Throughout the poem, Shelley highlights the issues within the class system.

The class system plays a big role in this piece of work as Shelley makes the difference between the proletariat's and the bourgeoisie apparent. Firstly, Shelley uses the word 'mock' which has a dual meaning to show the difference between the classes. In the line 'the  hand that mocked them' the word mock could mean mock as in to make a replica or imitation of something. This perspective could be crediting the proletariat's who created the statue but were exploited by the bourgeoisie, Ozymandias. He was the one to gain the power from the statue, whilst the proletariat's did not. The other meaning of the word 'mock' is to tease or laugh at in a scornful or contemptuous manner which could be indicating that the creators of the statue, the lower class purposefully made the statue portray Ozymandias as a tyrant, as when it is described words such as, 'frown' and 'sneer' are used. This could have been done to show that the lower class aren't as passive as often thought of and that they understand that they are oppressed by society, Shelley could have been using the word mock in either way, however as this poem was written within the romantic genre, it is likely that Shelley used the word mock to highlight the inequality between the classes within the era in which Ozymandias was alive. However a Marxist critic would still believe that the class system was unjust and would interpret from this poem that Shelley was trying to highlight this to the society reading at the time so that they would too question the ideologies set by the society they live in. 

However, Marxist critics would have doubted Shelley's work because of his wealth and would believe that he is not trying to advocate change within his poem and is instead tacitly supporting Ozymandias and increasing his power. By writing a poem about Ozymandias, Shelley is increasing his power by creating another piece of art that can remain in history for a long time. This creates a legacy for Ozymandias alongside the statue and therefore means that he is made more powerful.The inspiration behind this poem was the buying of the statue by an English museum, which a Marxist critic would view as stealing the history of the Proletariats by removing their work from its origin and instead reinforcing the history of Ozymandias by preserving his legacy. Art was often created by the proletariats for the bourgeoise with the  intention by the bourgeoise to increase their own power by taking credit for the work of others. 

This poem is a 14 line, iambic pentameter sonnet, however it doesn't follow the normal rules that apply to a Shakespearean sonnet. As Shelley was a romantic, he wouldn't have followed the normal literary conventions and would have therefore rejected the ideas of other poets on how a sonnet should have been written. As Shelley was higher class, he expressed the class divide by the structure of the poem, he used complex sentences in order for the sonnet to sound epic and to gain him literary power. Similarly to  Ozymandias he wanted his work to have an impact and to leave something behind for him to be remembered by throughout history. A marxist critic would argue that Shelley didn’t write the poem in order to make a social change and instead did it to show his power, as it was written to win a competition.

In this poem, Shelley shows that oppression is never over come and that even though nature kills man, the individuals power can still remain as symbols and legacy's in the form of art can be left behind. Gramsci, a neo-marxist believed that the proletariat's were aware of their exploitation and chose to remain passive as they had the mind set that oppression cannot be overcome and that they cannot change the ways in ehcih society works. A Marxist critic would believe that even after the oppressed groups in a society may cease to exist, a new group would replace them and oppression is a endless cycle that will continue as the groups within society are passive and do not try to fight the inequality in society.