Ozymandias Analysis

I just had to choose Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. If anyone reading this is an avid Breaking Bad fan, you know why.

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Title:

The title "Ozymandias" is a reference to an ancient Egyptian pharaoh named Ramesses II. Ramesss II was and is considered one of the most powerful rulers of the Egyptian empire's history. He won great wars and conquered vast territories, building cities, temples, and grand monuments. So to bring it back to the poem, the title of "Ozymandias" provokes a thought of great power and strength which gives some words a higher volume and others a deeper meaning.

Paraphrase:

"...Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive..."

So to sum this up it basically says that halfway buried in the sand there is a visage which is a face. This face has a upset and stern look and we know it is a face made out of some sort of stone or metal (not real flesh) because it mentions a sculptor that made it. This sculptor must have done a good job because the face expresses the proper "passions" that were harbored by the model per se.

Connotations:
"Antique" is used to to describe the land that this so called traveler came from. When I first think of the word antique my mind usually imagines some old piece of useless junk I could find in my grandma's garage. The connotation of the word is to be untouched and somewhat of value for how old and rare it is. Shelley used that word instead of "old" because "antique" not only matches the tone of the poem, but uses the connotations of it to keep the poem consistent with the atmosphere.
Another word Shelley uses for its connotative value is "visage." I had to look this up and apparently visage is literally someone's face. But when you get into the deeper more intricate meaning of the word, it is more of the expression and emotion displayed. Humans have a great ability to identify faces out of almost anything. It is one our basic instincts tied to pattern recognition which is basic for survival. So to use the word "visage" we can enrich the vision in our head of what kind of expression the sculptor had formed to the face. The "...frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command..." all tells us that this sculpted face belonged to a person of great power and iron ruling. The image of a "wrinkled lip" gives off a stern and focused, yet determined authority.
The use of the word "lifeless" is also used for its connotation. It is obvious that the sand and rocks are not living, but the word "lifeless" is used this way for how still the scene is. Everything is just frozen in place, trapped in the empty desert.

Attitude:
The attitude of the author is very dark and grim. The use of words like "shattered", "cold", "lifeless", and "decay" give off a gloomy connotation. The general attitude of the poem is stern and focused. There isn't a point in the poem where you can relax and just be calm. The poem demands to be read in a fierce and almost fearful way.

Shift:
A clear shift in this poem is when the narrator mentions the pedestal and its message.

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

The poem changes to a more frightening tone with the word of "despair" and the sharp change in tempo. The exclamation mark is used perfectly in this circumstance to show the building of volume that each word carries. Before this part of the poem we did have any sort of direct connection to the "visage" and its meaning or intensity. We could only infer based upon the expression of it what level of power it was. The function of the message Ozymandias leaves is to strike fear in the unwanted traveler and to make it be known that they should "tread lightly" for they are on legendary grounds of which this almighty king once ruled.

Title Revisited:
With the knowledge gained through further analysis of this poem, the title can somewhat carry a greater meaning. It is worth noting that towards the end of the poem, after the intense message of Ozymandias, the land beside it is described as "bare" which is almost ironic how he literally says "look on my works." Here lies a juxtaposition which exposes Ozymandias as someone who perhaps arrogantly thought of himself and his empire to be immortal. The empty desert sand certainly doesn't offer any sort of "works" to behold. While Ozymandias was great and powerful and heroic and mighty, his reign ultimately ended and so did the despair and fear he struck into his subjects.

Theme:
I think the theme of this poem could be that all power and ferocity fades with time. Time is the all powerful ongoing force that rules all. Even the King of Kings cannot defeat the insurmountable force of time. All of the once thriving and  flourishing cities, temples, and monuments built at hands of its mighty king lie in wreck and ruin with his own visage half buried in what his creation.

Breaking Bad is one of my all-time favorite shows ever. I like this poem mainly because of its ties to Breaking Bad, but after reading and analyzing it, I found a much better reason to like it. Anyway, for those of you who don't know how this relates to the show, here's the bone chilling, hair raising, heart pumping, gut wrenching, toe curling, goosebump inducing video. And if you're not a fan of the show, don't be all "Ughh Breaking Bad I don't care blah blah..." Broaden your horizons and watch a cool video. Enjoy