‘Ozymandias’ is one of the most famous sonnets written by Shelley. The ma in idea is developed in the fourteen lines of the sonnet systematically. In the octave, the poet describes how he met a traveller who came from an ancient land. Then he describes what the traveller saw there. He saw two huge trunkless legs of stone standing in the sand. Near them lay a shattered face half-buried in the sand. There were signs of contempt and ‘cold command’ on the face of the statue. The man was haughty, arrogant and authoritative. The workmanship of the sculptor was of quite a high quality. It seems he had well read the passions arising in the heart of the person before stamping them exactly as they were on the stone.

Shelley concludes the message in the sestet of the sonnet. The message is very clear. Time is all-powerful and spares none. All worldly power, pelf, glory and grandeur are just a nine-day wonder. Ozymandias used to call him ‘the king of kings’. He was mighty, proud of his wonderful feats and achievements. He thought himself a demi– god. But the ravages of time reduced Ozymandia’s attempt to outlive the posterity to dust. His broken statue and shattered face lie half buried in the sand. Nothing else has remained but only boundless and bare sand all around the shattered statue.