Percy Bysshe Shelly “Ozymandias”

I have always been found of this poem after being required to memorize it when I was in eighth grade. It was not until during last week’s chat session that I came to realize that it was a warning to the King of England, George III. At the time of the poem it was at the end of George’s reign and with that in mind the poem makes incredible sense. As with Ozymandias, King George III, was at the height of his power, the most powerful man alive. Yet over time his reign could be only remembered by a couple of legs and a shattered image of his face. At the height of George’s rule he ruled over twenty percent of the world. Like Ramses II who ruled one of the most powerful empires of all time yet there is little to remember him by other than his claim of “look at my works ye mighty and despair.” But this claim is made in the middle of the desert. Nothing could be more analogous of this King’s current rule. In a few thousand years all the work that has been placed into this land would be all for nothing as nothing exist. The bitterness of Ramses could also come from the loss of some part of his empire of power. If the belief that the twelve tribes of Israel left Egypt during Ramses time then that would have been a clear black mark and left him with a “sneer of cold command.” George III oversaw the Thirteen Colonies become a nation that defeated him twice in forty years, the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. These left a black mark on his reign of England. There is a story that whenever the Romans built a arch celebrating a great general that while he was riding through the parade in his honor there would always be a slave whispering in his ear that his accomplishments could be all for nothing over time. Perhaps Shelly is subtly trying to tell George III the same thing.