Paper One over, Ozymandias
Born in Broadbridge Heath, England, on August 4, 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the epic poets of the 19th century. Percy Shelley was also one of the major English Romantic poets. He did not gain much fame in his lifetime for the poems, but following his death, he was recognized for the great art he created through his writing. Shelley died around the age of thirty by drowning due to a boating accident. He died July 8, 1827. In August, 1811, Shelley ran away and married with Harriet Westbrook, a 16-year-old whom his parents had specifically banned him from seeing. His love for her was based on a wish that he could keep her from committing suicide. They eloped, but he was soon irritated with her and became involved with a woman named Mary Wollstonecraft. She was an English novelist, best known for her Gothic novel, Frankenstein, in 1816. They stayed together until 1822, when Shelley died. One of Shelley’s poems stood out to me in particular, this was Ozymandias. It was first published in the January, 1818 issue of The Examiner, in London. “Ozymandias” is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic pentameter. In the poem, Ozymandias, there are many interesting details hidden under the surface. For starters, you never know exactly where the story takes place. At first it is easy to believe the setting would be in the desert, but what some people don’t realize, is that the conversation could be happening in a dream or vision. This poem has quite a few settings. It starts off with a bizarre encounter between the speaker and a traveler from an "antique land". Soon after this original meeting you are taken to the sands of Egypt, or a desolate wilderness that closely resembles it. At about this point, when the plaque is being read, it is hinted that another speaker has taken over. Other than the legs, platform, and head of the figure, there is only sand. No hint remains of the society or customs that made the statue. The Bible says, in the book of Proverbs 16:18 that, “Pride goeth before