Maggies Ozymandias Essay -- Analysis, Percy Shelley

In developing an insightful central theme, Percy Shelley avails of two unbendable literary tools, imagery and irony, to jolt readers with a striking epiphany. Imagery for one, navigates the earreach to what is truly emphasized in the poem literary art as opposed to physical, plastic art. It also serves to characterize a key elaborate in the poemOzymandiaswhom is ascribed as having cold, arrogant, and pretentious qualities. The speaker juxtaposes the words chip at on the pedestal with the image of dilapidated memorials and the b atomic number 18 boundless littoral zone which surround it. When these two vivid descriptions contrast, the visual imagery, through this juxtaposition, very buttresses situational irony. In fact, situational irony dominates and governs the readers very impression of the former pharaoh at the conclusion of the poem worn down and disintegrated, Ozymandias monument portrays an image of wreckage and abstruseness whereas, the poem itself portrays an image, which withstanding time, has successfully attempted what Ozymandias himself desire ever perpetual fame and a lasting legacy. By using imagery and irony, Shelley conveys the idea that poetical verses, linguistic expressions, and literary legacies outlast those of monolithic and architectural form.Interestingly enough, Shelley employs the phrase antique pop (1) to start out the diction in this instance highlights the setting, and our perspective of time, for antiquity denotes the belonging to the past and not being modern. The style in which the poem is rendered is reminiscent of a folk tales recital since we are told the story through an obscure traveller and the reader is naturally pull into the mysticism and mystery. However, in this way, Shelley distances the audie... ...initely. So the wreckage which remained scarcely survived the sands of time. So in this way, the reader perceives that a legacy through a mere monument is a legacy which fades.So what is left of Ozymandias? The poem itselfand further, the poem actually slights at the very heart of the former kings desired legacy. We see that, in fact, how easily the Pharaoh, whom monuments had once been built for and who once command a great empire, is easily thwarted in the readers mind by linguistic expressions, by delicate subtle phrases, and by literary persuasion. Shelleys work perpetuates through the years to remind many an(prenominal) of Ozymandias. On the other hand, we also see that the endurance of physical art, monumental designs, and sculptures as a medium of legacy is inferior to that of the mighty, powerful literary weapons Shelley wields from his arsenal of ink and parchment.