There is always an inscribed construction of funerary monuments like pyramids and tombs. There was a concept of how a person will survive afterlife, so Ancient Egyptians used to bury resources, jewels, wealth and things of daily use like comb and spoons according to their status and position in the society. Ancient Egyptian culture is obsessed with the belief of death and afterlife. Shelley's own interest in Egyptology reflected in his poems like Alastor, or, of The Spirit Solitude. When Egypt was invaded by Napoleon in 1798 and Mohammad Ali in 1806 more and more artistic works established in Egypt. In the 1820s when Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered one of Egyptian writing engraved on Rosetta stone awakens an interest in this ancient culture. With the starting up of 19th century a great interest developed in ancient Egyptian culture which marked the beginning of modern Egyptology. Get your price Thematic Analysis of Ozymandias Thus, the discovery of statue fragments inspired Shelley. Thus, there were two sonnets published with similar title Ozymandias in Leigh Hunt's Examiner, among the two Shelley's Ozymandias was two one to gain popularity. After the discovery of fragments of statues of Ramesses II, Percy Shelley and his friend, the poet Horace Smith, challenged each other to write a poem on the same discovery, on the same subject, title, theme and form. According to the second book of Bible, "Exodus", Ramesses was a pharoh at the time Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Ramesses was a warrior king and he built up many temples, statues and other monuments in his lifetime, though his exact age of death remain uncertain. Ramesses II was born in 1314 BC and ruled Egypt for 66 years. Another name of Ramesses II is Ozymandias. As in the year 1817 news came up that archeologists had discovered fragments of the statue of Ramesses II and sending the pieces to the British museum. This is a metaphor for the fame that is lost of a once great leader and has been buried in the sands of time.Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias was first published in the year 1818. Not a lot of people go through the desert, or would desire to. This broken and weathered statue lies in a desolate place that stretches on for miles and miles. Ozymandias is taken to be a commentary on the ephemeral nature of power and it reflects Shelley’s dislike for monarchs and dictators who wield power and are tyrants. This heavy description reflects Shelley’s personal thoughts on people who hunger for and have power. From the second line on, the reader is confronted with a vivid picture of the situation with majestic and heavy words such as ‘vast and trunkless’, ‘half sunk’,’shattered visage’ ‘frown and wrinkled lip’ and ‘sneer of cold command’. Shelley has evocative language, which creates some very intense images. It is this person who then narrates the story about the huge statue in the sands of the desert, a monument of a great leader which has now lost all its glory. The reader is listening in to a conversation between two people, he or she has a third person perspective on what is being said in the exchange between a traveller, who has recently returned from a journey through an ancient country and the poet. This kind of format was very unusual for a sonnet at that time and it reflects Shelley’s innovative thinking. Then he switches the focus to a third person deliberately and cleverly a traveler, whose words form the remaining thirteen lines. The poet uses the first person pronoun “I” to begin his sonnet. He is best known for classic poems such as “Ozymandias”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark”, “Music, When Soft Voices Die”, “The Cloud”, and “Masque of Anarchy”. In 1814, when he travelled to London, he met with the philosopher William Godwin and subsequently Mary Godwin, with whom he fell in love with. The poet was an important member of a close circle of exemplary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, John Keats, Thomas Love Peacock, and his own wife, Mary Shelley. The recognition of his achievements in poetry grew after his death. He was a radical in his poetry as well and that may be a reason as to why Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime. Along with his beautiful lyrical poetry, he also ventured into criticism of politics, being highly critical of the cruelty and injustice of the British establishment. He was strongly influenced by the poems of William Wordsworth also became close to the two great romantic poets – John Keats and Lord Byron. Shelley was very generous and supportive of fellow poets and was a major figure in the development of English romantic poetry. Shelley was a famous English romantic poet, who gained attention for his beautiful lyrical poetry and strongly ideal and radical political thought.
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