The theme of destruction and decay in P.B.

Shelleys Sonnet 'Ozymandias'

Question : Write the moral of the poem Ozymandias.

Or, Discuss the theme of destruction and decay in P.B. Shelleys Sonnet
Ozymandias
Or, Human being must submit to the eternal law of destruction and decay.
Or, Is Shelly a pessimist or an optimist?
Answer :
In the poem Ozymandias the poet P.B. Shelley has described the eternal
teuth that nothing on earth is permanent. Everything is subject to death and decay.
In the poem Ozymandias there is a touch of melancholy and sadness. It makes us
reftect over the vanity of human wishes and the failure of our efforts to keep our
memory alive forever. The contrast between the past glory of the king and the
present condition of the statue is very striking to the mind and emphasizes the
mord of the poem. The poem subtle flatters and vanity. We feel after reading it that
we are wiser than Ozymandias who never knew the irony of his inscriptions.
With the passage of time Ozymandias empire was ruined and now the statue
of the king lay broken and neglected with nothing but desert all around.
Ozymandias who called himself the king of kings and boasted of the pried that
no other king could equal him in glory; nothing could save him and his memory
from the ravages of time. In spite of, his power and pelt. This mighty powerful and
haughty king, who had a sense of his own importance had to face death. The razor
of time ravaged everything of him. Everything is transient and short lived so the
mighty state of Ozymandias is also temporary. It is like ten others thing, a
subjeet to death and decay. Everything must meet it`s end. So Ozymandias along
with his realic has met eternal death and end Ozymandias is the mighty hero; but
he is redvce to zero with the passage of time. It is the irony that there is no balance
between what is expected and what is acheived. Everything weak or strong must
drink the cup of death. Ozymandiass proud utterance is proved to be futile and
meaningless.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works,ye mighty,and despair.
This poem reminds us of the impermanence of all earthly thimgs beings. The
king, once powerful and haughty, is no more on the earth. His relic, the broken
statve is broken in to dust. The tone of sadness, prevails every where such a sense
of sadness is replected in the poem Elegy Written in covntry churchyard by

Thomas Gray. All great men think alike. Shelleys sense of transience is replected
in the following lines of thomas gray
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth eer gave,
A waits alike th inevitable hour:The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Ozymandias statue advices all other powerful to look upon his achievements
and realize that nothing is permanent and eternal in this mundane world of ouras.
This poem points out a universal fact that everything on earth, beautiful or ugly is
subject to death and decay. This is inevitable destiny of human being. Shelley
seems to point out the moral idea that mundane pomp and luxury are insignif cant
in comparison with the great faet of death. Beauty, glory, power and wealth
everything will end in smoke. So human being should act kecping this universal
idea in mind. Man wants to live with power and pelf for eternal time but their death
stands at everybodys door. Death lays its icy hands over every living being who
does not want to die. Here lies irony of all living neings.
Thus Shelley has shown the impermanence earthly things and beings.