![]() The sonnet is in Iambic pentameter with some irregularities. So, Diodorus’s work served as the source of the poem. Actually this sonnet got its content from the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who wrote about a massive Egyptian statue quoting the inscription under it. ![]() But, then it gets into a frame of reported speech from another man, ‘a traveller from an antique land’, whom the speaker met. ![]() The poem is a narrative poem where the speaker starts it with ‘I’, making it look like a first person narrative. Wikipedia has a side by side comparison of the two poems. It is worth mentioning here that Shelley wrote this poem in competition with his friend Horace Smith who primarily gave his poem the same name ‘Ozymandias’ and published that in the same magazine. Though the subject of the sonnet is not a typical one for Shelley’s poetry, it has been a popular poem and has influenced many other literary creations since its publication. So the poet here highlights the mortality and inevitable decline of so-called mighty leaders and their false pride in contrary to the immortality of creative works. So, what remains alive is the sculptor’s work of art. ![]() But the head of the statue which is half-sunk in the sand, still expresses the passions of the ruler. The king once enjoyed his commanding power, but time has brought its decay. Vincent Millay Advertisementsīut, the poem ironically presents a great message about the transitory (short-lived) existence of the boastful might of the ruler. What lips my lips have kissed Poem by Edna St. ![]()
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