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?
