![]() The works that were to be the despair of other pharaohs have completely disappeared. Instead of the architectural marvels promised by the inscription, "the lone and level sands stretch far away." Just as the sculptor mocked Ozymandias by putting on the face of the colossal monument a "frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command," so time has also mocked him by reducing his vain boast to nothingness. Now one looks and sees nothing whatsoever. The rulers of the world, "ye Mighty," are told by Ozymandias, "king of kings," to look upon his works and despair of emulating them. Shelley puts the words of the inscription in effectively ironic contrast with the surroundings. The fine beginning is followed by a condensed and vigorous account of what the traveler saw in addition to the two huge legs standing in the desert: a shattered visage, a pedestal, and on it a boastful inscription. The story is over and Shelley's point is made before the reader realizes that he has been subjected to a moral lesson. The story is a characteristically Shelleyan one about tyranny and how time makes a mockery of the boastfulness of even the most powerful kings. The mention of a traveler is a promise of a story. Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone ![]() ![]() Shelley's irregular sonnet on the fragments of a huge statue of an Egyptian pharaoh begins with a statement that arouses the interest of the reader at once: On the pedestal are inscribed the words "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Around the huge fragments stretches the empty desert. The face is distinguished by a frown and a sneer which the sculptor carved on the features. Near them on the sand lies a damaged stone head. ![]() A traveler tells the poet that two huge stone legs stand in the desert. ![]()
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