Poetry and Poetics–Lit 204

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats explores the mysteries, truths, and immortal stories that have lived on through the art on Grecian urns. The art on the urns tell a story about the person whose remains it holds, but interpretations of the story have changed with time. This is evident when Keats writes, “When old age shall this generation waste, / Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe” (46-47). He is saying as newer generations are born, the stories on the urns still remain the same. Those that knew of the person mourn in memory. Meanwhile, the newer generations that never knew the person, now only know what the art shows them. This is shown by the lines, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter… / Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d” (11-13). The art in someway makes the memory of that person immortal because their story lives on past their death. While a person no longer lives to tell of truth which is represented by their “silent melodies” in the poem, they are now depicted on the urn for those who wish to look at them. “While silent be; and not a soul to tell / Why thou art desolate, can e’er return” (39-40). This line implies that the pictures can not actively tell a story, but they can present one to someone who looks at it. The art will remain on the urn for a while after the person’s death. 

On the contrary, the truths to those stories can become blurred as time moves on. The questions in the first stanza seem to imply that the urn is more full of questions and mysteries than of truths. While the art that represents a truth does not change and still represents the same truth, the interpretation of the art changes and thats what causes the mysteries to arise in the real truth of a story; certain things gain or lose meaning overtime. Additionally, sometimes things become indecipherable when art changes as well. The idea of mysteriousness and ambiguousness is also reflected by the rhyme scheme. The first seven lines of each stanza seems to follow an ababcde rhyme scheme but the last three lines vary by stanza. They each have different patterns of dce, ced, or cde. Each stanza can take on different rhyme schemes just like each interpretation can have a different truth. The main focus of this poem however is that art does hold some kind of truth that allows a story to become “immortal.” Lines 49-50 say, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,–that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

When I was in high school, I came across an animation on YouTube. It featured someone reading the poem as thematic scenes of a story were rhythmically played on the screen. At the time, I thought it was some cool poem or monologue someone read and another animated, similar to TED Ed’s poetry collection. But as I delved deeper into its significance, I became fascinated with this poem.

Ozymandias was one of the first poems I fell in love with. The poem recounts a story a speaker heard from a traveler about their discovery in an antique land: a statue of Ozymandias. To the people who are aware of the story of Moses, watched “The Prince of Egypt,” or know the Fate series by TYPE-MOON; Ozymandias is the Greek name of Ramses II (aka Ramses the Great). He was a ruler of Ancient Egypt well-known for his military exploits and being the most celebrated of the time. He had statues and monuments featuring his likeness. He won almost all of his military campaigns and was considered the “Great Ancestor” by his people. Who wouldn’t be envious of a legacy like that?

But not everything can last an eternity. If anyone is aware of the Hamilton musical, a key element of the musical is the importance of legacy and how history remembers and portrays that legacy. Ozymandias, on the other hand, is a poem about the nature of legacy and how time washes away that legacy. It uses grandiose diction while emphasizing the cold antiquity of what is left of the ruler’s legacy. The dialogue written on the plate of the statue tells the audience well what Ozymandias’s intentions were for these statues. He wanted to preserve a legacy, but that legacy will erode over time.

The poem is also a mixture of Petrarchian and Shakespearean sonnets— a combination of the original and its derivative. In the beginning and at the end, it follows an ABAB rhyme scheme. But in the middle, it bears cracks in its rhyme. The full rhyme scheme becomes ABABACDCEDEFEF.

I think it gave me so many chills because of the realization that nothing lasts forever. Though we may think that history and legacy will be passed on through the generations, imagine how many civilizations and stories we have lost due to the hands of time. Imagine how many more will be lost because we leave their mundanity behind. I think the reason why we live is because we want to leave an impression— a legacy for people to think and remember us by. Something that proves that we lived, and survived. But just as the lone and level desert sands had buried the broken statue of Ozymandias, so too will our existence be buried in the sands of time. Textbooks and biographies preserve only a fraction of our existence. Memory leaves a scenic dent in our minds. When the dream of college life and poetry ends, what imprint will we leave in our wake? And how will people remember that?

For this week’s blog post I chose to focus on “Ozymandias”. Upon first reading this poem it really caught my eye because of how the structure feels more like a story than a poem due to the speaking of the traveler in quotation marks. After reading the poem a few times and doing some background research this unique structure started to make sense to me. Ozymandias, who the poem is about, was actually the Greek name of a pharaoh. To me this put into perspective what the message of the poem might be about. The storytelling structure made me feel as though the poem was about the legacy of this pharaoh and how long it lasts, just as stories are told over and over again.

I found that the poem reveals a not so favorable image of the Pharaoh. The traveler describes the statue of the pharaoh as “two vast and trunkless legs” as well as a “half sunk a shattered visage”. I found this descriptive imagery to reveal a theme of fleeting power. Normally statues are meant to be an ode to their subject. The fact that the poem describes the statue as crumbled and in shambles reveals the little respect and legacy that is left of the pharaoh. I believe that this imagery is employed to reveal that power inevitably crumbles. In addition, I think that the sand that the statue’s face is “sunk” into is also a symbol of how power is fleeting overtime. The description of sand in the poem brought to mind both the changing patterns of sand dunes overtime and the passage of time in a sand hourglass. I believe that the sand is meant to symbolize the loss of the Pharaohs’ power overtime.

Finally, I think the last four lines of the poem further reveal this theme of fleeting power. Ozymandias says, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”. I interpreted this line to be an exclamation coming from Ozymandias to look at everything his mighty power had created. However, the traveler reveals that everything that surrounds the statue is “boundless and bare”. Essentially the pharaoh boasts of his legacy when truly nothing remains. This is revealing of the arrogance that comes with power.

In Shelley’s “Ozymandias” the form of the poem directly links to the meaning. It is clearly a sonnet with its 14 lines and iambic pentameter, but the rhyme scheme is broken in multiple places, and there are many lines that starts with trochees or have them embedded within them. Lines 2, 4, and 9 have no rhyming lines, and lines 3, 6, and 11 start with trochees. I find this very interesting because “Ozymandias” is about the statue of a once-mighty king who has been forgotten by time. There is a large statue that was clearly once grand, but all that remains are the legs and face in the sand, and the legacy of its sculptor. The sonnet form is a very old one that can be very restrictive, like an ancient tyrant. But the form isn’t what matters – those who use it are what is remembered. In the poem, the traveler praises the sculptor for his brilliant work on the statue, even though it is broken and lying in the sand. Even though Shelley has broken the traditional form, his work can still be beautiful, and will be remembered beyond its context.

What I found particularly interesting in The Destruction of Sennacherib was the use of chaos versus peace. This is primarily depicted in stanzas four and five. The fourth stanza describes the death of a horse slain in the siege, while the fifth stanza depicts the death of that horse’s rider. The poem shows the stark differences between the two deaths, where the horse’s death is far more chaotic and aggressive, whereas the rider’s death is more silent and graceful. It seems as if the horse knew about death’s presence and tried to fight it off, albeit in a losing battle. The rider and the soldiers, in general, seem far more unaware of death’s presence lingering over them all. In this way, death catches them by surprise; as such, there is far more silence associated with it.

There is something tragic about this, especially with the line “the trumpet unblown,” showing a lack of ceremony in these deaths. This could also lead to the poem’s title, “Destruction,” which differs from death as death suggests a loss of life. Destruction, however, implies all remnants of something be obliterated. A removal, rather than a snuffing. In this way, the silence in the deaths of the soldiers shows how Sennacherib is being destroyed, as his legacy, through his soldiers, is being quietly taken away. The horse, however, tries to resist. This may suggest something about the naivety of the soldiers, whereas the horse has some recognition of what is occurring.