CSP
Ozymandias is a sonnet by P. B. Shelley, a poet of the romantic period. He is also called the revolutionary poet of English Literature. This sonnet has been named after the main character in this poem. The poem portrays the futility of an Egyptian king called Rameses-II who has several by-names. Vasimare was one of them. Ozymandias is the Greek name for Rameses-II, derived from Vasimare.
The name Ozymandias has attained a symbolic dimension in this poem. During his lifetime, the king has enjoyed unlimited power. He boasted of himself as the king of kings. He built a colossal statue of himself in a vast desert and on the pedestal of it got inscribed-
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
But with the passage of time, the statue was shattered into pieces and the pride of the king was turned into nothingness. The frowned forehead and the wrinkle lips half-buried in the sand still indicate the pride of Ozymandias.
However, the time has proved now that all these are meaningless, nothing more than a crumbled wreck. Shelley has sketched Ozymandias as a symbol of futile power that fails the test of time.