Ozymandias by Percy Shelley: A Critical Note on the Predetermined Structure of the Poem

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.”

The meaning of any poem is not the paraphrasing of its lines; its sense is obtained through two levels: first the rhythm, through reading the poem, and second once the poem is read, the imagery of the poem gives us the sense of the poem. If we want to experience a poem, we shouldn't consider that what took place in the lines is what really happened, because paraphrasing is only analyzing the apparent structure. The meaning of any poem is a meaning restricted to the poet at the moment of writing, this meaning is not static, but rather changes with time.

Shelly wrote a poem through his imagination, and, thus, he didn't write to register something that happened before he wrote the poem. He wrote for the future. The poem doesn't register any incident which happened in front the poet. He is rather using the historical reference to write about the future and not the past. If Shelly wanted to write about the past, it would be easier to write about the historical reference (Ramses II), but he used this symbolic reference only to write his poetic equivalence "Ozymandias". The title of the poem is an integral part and can be considered as the first line of the poem. Shelly creates a difference in the elapse of time between the "I" of the poet and the events.

Whenever we read a poem, our attention is drawn into an outward direction, to the words we are dealing with and their meaning, and to our memories that contain the conventional associations of the words we are dealing with, i.e, to the verbal patterns. The meaning of the words form the subject of the poem which doesn't belong to the poem; it is rather associated with the conventional status of our memories. We fix a static interpretation of the words of a poem, but to the poet and the poem itself, the meaning of the poem is not static. In any poem there is structure, which is the pattern found in words, this is the inward direction, we are lead to in reading the lines. "Ozymandias's" historical reference exists outside the poem, in history, if we think of this meaning then we are drawn outside the poem. "Ozymandias" is an exotic word which attracts us toward the inward direction of the poem. This direction implies the following: The structure of the opening lines

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,

There is an image which functions with the inward direction. In the above lines, Shelly is trying to make the exotic atmosphere, which the title gives, more concrete and to enhance it even further. He used the simple past to indicate a time which is far from the poet's own time when the poet says: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone..." he indicates the sense of authenticity and age. 

I met a traveller from an antique land

 who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

This notion of time work with the ambiguous and strange atmosphere and with the past tense.  "Ozymandias" couldn't mean (Ramses II) because of the words inwards function.

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

Instead of the "face" Shelly said "visage" which is remote formal and strange. "Visage" doesn't refer to the face of (Ramses II), or it would be related to an outward direction. Imagery is built up through the pattern formed by the poem. In a good poem, an image doesn't provoke an idea, a word provokes another word; but not an idea, once a word provokes an idea, then it surpasses the word pattern to the inward direction.

Line 1 represents one sound unit, because it rhymes with line 3; this presence of unity doesn't prevent the pattern to build up. However, as far as the image is concerned there is no unity, for an image has to build up in the poem. We have to overrun the sound units to complete the images because the patterns overrun the sound units. In line 6 "well those passions read" (passions) is both a subject and an object, this enhances the complexity of the poem. The deliberate short sentences give formality and seriousness to the atmosphere of "Ozymandias". We have to overrun the sound unity to see the image. Passion, as a word, serves a complicated structure where "passion" is three times a subject and one time an object {passions (object)  read, yet survive (subject), mocked them (subject)}.

Coleridge said that, if the poem does not justify itself, then the poem is a failure. If any poem has an alternative in its structure, then this would be on the expense of the poem. If we could change any word in the lines without affecting the structure of the poem or its sound pattern, then the poem is a failure because it lacks unity. The reason the lines are complex and complicated is that the poem sounds a bit contrived, the reason lies in the way the poem was written. The number of lines in the poem are 14 and that is no coincident because Shelly is writing in the sonnet form 14 lines, definite rhyme scheme (abab/cdcd/efef/gg). The complexity comes from Shelly's attempt in writing a sonnet form. "Ozymandias" has an irregular rhyme scheme although it is a sonnet; it has the form of an English sonnet except for the rhyme and that creates complexity. A sonnet is divided in a definite manner (quatrains) and is less complex than Shelly's sonnet because the division in "Ozymandias" is compressed. The poet is trying to fit a topic through a predetermined structure, and his (Shelly) topic is compressed. The issue is already artificial, because a poem should be the result of poetic experience. The whole structure is predetermined in the mind of the poem, while a poem's structure comes alongside the process of writing the poem, the lines are not the result of a spontaneous poetic experience, and this fact created complexity. (The object is alternatively an object then a subject then an object). The mechanical process of writing "Ozymandias" forced the poet to being complicated.

Some critics say that before Shelly wrote his poem, he was shown a statue and that the poem was written in a contest between two poets on writing about a statue. Critics admit that the poem was not the result of a poetic process. Artifice lead to complexity, and inside the structure of the poem, the poet was able to depict the image of "Ozymandias" as a serious formal image. He was focusing on the contrast between the might of the King and the mortality of his symbol. The great might of the King is only momentous and contemporary. The symbol of sands in line 14 multiply and functions; if we consider the sands as grains of sand, they all look the same in color and shape, contrary to the mortality of the statue. They are an immortal aspect of nature which will not change, in opposite to the statue which stands for the might and authority of a man, no matter how great he is, who is mortal.

To sum up, in my opinion, the target of poetry is emotional, so if any poet doesn't evoke emotion in the reader, then the poem wouldn't be a great poem. The difference between a poem and any other writing is the genesis of emotion. As a poem, "Ozymandias" is not a good poem, it is made of a preconceived form, or what I may call an artificial attention.

The Romantic Imagination

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, imagination was not a cardinal point in poetical theory. For Pope and Johnson, as for Dryden before them, it has little importance, and when they mention it, it has a limited significance. What matters in poetry according to them is the truth to the emotions, or, as they prefer to say, sentiment. They prefer to speak in general terms and not to indulge themselves in creating new worlds.

For a whole century English philosophy had been dominated by the theories of John Locke who assumed that in perception the mind is wholly passive, a mere recorder of impressions from without, "a lazy looker on the external world." Both Locke and Newton found a place for God in their universes, the former on the ground that the works of nature in every part of them sufficiently evidence a deity, and the latter on the principle that the great machine of the world implies a mechanic. 

Tom Paine, a well known thinker and a close friend to William Blake, assumed that the creations of the imagination are mere fantasies and, as such, divorced from life. In addition, William Shakespeare shows his acquaintance to this belief along with approval of an Italian philosopher called Picodella Mirandola, who thought that the imagination is almost a diseased faculty. Moreover, Francis Bacon in turn regarded imagination as a harmless and not an unpleasant activity, but not more. The position stated above is plainly unsatisfactory for poets who believe that the imagination is a divine faculty concerned with the central issues of the whole being, and it is extremely fundamental because without it there is no poetry. 

English Romantics gave a great importance to imagination, so they were interested in images (visual impressions and metaphors).  For the English Romantics, the belief in imagination was like the belief in individual self ; they admired sentiments. The mind is the central point and governing factor. The most vital activity of mind is imagination, and the source of spiritual energy is divine. They believed when they exercised imagination that they partake of the divine activity of God. Blake and Coleridge were the pioneers who insisted that the most vital activity of the mind is imagination, and they were hostile to the whole system of Locke and Newton.

For Blake the world of imagination is infinite and eternal whereas that world of generation, of vegetation, is finite and temporal. He also claimed that the imagination is nothing less than God as he operates in the human soul. It follows that any act of creation performed by the imagination is divine and that in the imagination man's spiritual nature is fully and finally realized. 

As to Coleridge it is true that he regards poetry as a product of secondary imagination, but since this differs only in degree from the primary it remains clear that to him imagination is of first importance because it partakes the creativity (divine activity) of God. To him, imagination is related to truth and reality, and it is connected with a special insight. It sees things to which the ordinary intelligence is blind. Insight and imagination are inseparable, for they complete each other. Insight awake the imagination to work and is sharpened by it when it is at work.

Romantics combine imagination and truth because their creations are inspired and controlled by a peculiar insight. What matters to them was an insight into the nature of things. They refused Locke's limitation of perception to physical objects because it robbed the mind of its most essential function (perceive and create). It was this search for an unseen world which awakened the inspiration of the Romantics and made poets of them. However, imagination can't be considered an escape from life. Coleridge believed that imagination working with intuition can make discoveries on matters which really concern us. 

The Romantics wanted to explore the world of spirit, so visible things aren't every thing unless they are related to an embracing power. They believed that through imagination and insight they could understand the things of spirit and present them in poetry. Apprehension of spiritual issues differs from scientific apprehension of natural laws or philosophical grasp of general truths. These laws and truths are stated in abstract words, but spiritual powers must be introduced through particular examples. When imagination is on them, we begin to understand their significance. In nature, Romantic poets found their initial inspiration. It wasn't everything to them, but they would have been nothing without it.

Coleridge had a deep trust in imagination as something which gives a shape to life. He believes that nature lives in us, and it is we who create all that matter in her. Although Coleridge is a little hampered by the presence of an external world, he feels in some way he must conform to it. Yet, when his creative genius is at work, it brushes these hesitations aside. Because he was fascinated by the notion of unearthly powers, he believed that the task of poetry is to convey the mystery of life, and it was their influence he sought to catch. Moreover, he believed that life is ruled by powers which can't be fully understood, so the result is a poetry more mysterious.

Wordsworth agreed with Coleridge on the distinction between imagination and fancy, for he believes that imagination is the most important gift a poet can have. Wordsworth didn't relate reason to anything, but he insisted that the inspired insight is itself rational. However, he differs from Coleridge in his conception of the external world; he accepts its independent existence and insists that imagination must in some sense conform to it. Moreover, he believes that imagination must somehow be related to the external world because that world is not dead but living and has its own soul and distinct from the soul of man, and man's task is to connect with this soul; man's life is shaped by nature . Wordsworth believed that he helped this soul of nature to become closer to man and could show how the external world and the individual mind fits each other. As concerning nature, it was the source of his inspiration. Wordsworth sought for a state in which the soul of nature should be united with the soul of man.

As for Shelley, he was also attached to imagination, but he saw that reason must somehow be related to imagination and believed (unlike Wordsworth) that its special task is to analyze the given and to act as an instrument for the imagination. Shelley calls poetry the "Expression of Imagination" because in it divers things are brought together instead of being separated through analysis. In his "Defense of Poetry" he claimed that the poet has a special kind of knowledge, a sear, gifted within a peculiar insight into the nature of reality. For him the ultimate reality is the eternal mind, so he believed that the task of imagination is to create shapes by which this reality can be revealed.

The Romantics agreed that their task was to find through the imagination some order which explains the world of appearances, for them this reality could be spiritual. They refused to accept the ideas of other men on trust or to sacrifice imagination to argument. 

Keats had a passionate love for the visible world. To him, ultimate reality is to be found only in the imagination. He saw the imagination as a power which both creates and reveals, or rather reveals through creating. Keats accepted the works of the imagination not merely existing in their own right, but as having a relation to ultimate reality through the light which they shed on it. Through the imagination, Keats sought an absolute reality to which a door was opened by his appreciation of beauty through the senses. Through beauty he felt that he came into the presence of the ultimately real. The more intensely a beautiful object affected him, the more convinced he was that he passed beyond it to something else. The beauty of visible things carried Keats into ecstasy.

In conclusion, Coleridge, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelly and Keats were confident not only that the imagination was their most precious possession but that was somehow concerned with a supernatural order. They insisted that it reveals an important kind of truth; as it works it sees things to which the ordinary intelligence is blind, and that it is intimately connected with a special insight or perception or intuition.

Are the Romantic Poets, Poets of Nature???

Before going into this critical discussion about Romantic poetry, let me briefly introduce romanticism and the theory of romantic poets about poetry. Romanticism comes from "romance" which is the term used by romantic poets in France who relied on their imagination that is able to create a new reality and not as a tool to escape from reality. The stress is on the individual and not on the society (believe in capacities of man). In other words, English Romantics who adopted this movement  believed that there must be a departure of the static (rigid conventions) of the 18th century. This movement is not a sudden  change it is a part of a chain, although French and German poets had a direct influence on the English romantic movement, because poetry is poetry which has roots.

The romantic movement is supported by a certain romantic theory, which backs up the romantic trend. In their theory, English Romantics gave a great importance to imagination (fundamental role). For the English Romantics the belief in imagination was like the belief in individual self. Mind is the central point and governing factor and the most vital activity of the mind is imagination. They believed when they exercised imagination, they partake of the divine activity of God. Romantics combine imagination and truth because their creations are inspired and controlled by a peculiar insight. What matters to the Romantics was an insight into the nature of things. They refused Lock's (an English philosopher) limitation of perception to physical objects because it robbed the mind of its most essential function (perceive & create). Romantics wanted to explore the world of spirit. Visible things are not everything unless they are related to an embracing power.  They believed that through imagination and insight they could understand the things of spirit and present them in poetry.  Therefore, it was this search of an unseen world which awakened the inspiration of the romantics and made poets of them. In nature Romantic poets found their initial inspiration. It wasn't everything to them, but they would have been nothing without it.

Coleridge classified imagination onto primary and secondary imagination; they differ only in degree. To Coleridge, poetry is the product of the secondary imagination. He believed that imagination partakes of the divine activity of God. Imagination is related to truth and reality and connected with a special insight. It sees things to which the ordinary intelligence is blind. Coleridge believed that insight and imagination are inseparable; they complete each other. Moreover, Coleridge had a deep trust in imagination as something which gives a shape to life. He believes that nature live in us, and it is we who create all that matter in it. Coleridge is a little hampered by the presence of an external world and feels in some way he must conform to it. But when his creative genius is at work, it brushes these hesitations aside. He thought that the task of poetry is to convey the mystery of life. He was fascinated by the notion of unearthly powers and it was their influence he sought to catch. He believes that life is ruled by powers which can't be fully understood. The result is a poetry more mysterious. 

In any study on William Wordsworth's poetry, we are faced with the following: "He is a romantic poet." In fact, he is a romantic poet, but when we say "romantic", the danger lies in   understanding that romantic means: the poet imagines, contemplates, meditates, and creates an illusion. But, when we study William Wordsworth's definition of poetry, we see that he has to abide to a theory because the poem is a practice of the theory he believes in.  Wordsworth agreed with Coleridge about the distinction between imagination and fancy. He believed that imagination is the most important gift a poet can have; he didn't relate reason to anything, but he insisted that the inspired insight is itself rational. As for Coleridge's conception of the external world, Wordsworth disagreed with him. He accepted its independent existence and insisted that imagination must in some sense conform to it. Wordsworth believed that imagination must somehow be related to the external world because that world is not dead but living and has its own soul which is distinct from the soul of man. Therefore, man's task is to connect with this soul because his life is shaped by nature. Wordsworth also believed that he helped this soul of nature to become closer to man and could show how the external world and the individual mind fits each other. As concerning nature, it was the source of his inspiration. He sought for a state in which the soul of nature should be united with the soul of man.

Many critics say  the following "William Wordsworth is the poet of nature." However, when we read his poetry, we find out that in many lines he insisted that he is the poet of men. Even when it is a question of nature, if we ask Wordsworth himself, he says: "The mind of man creates half what it sees." Therefore, when we say that he's the poet of nature, the risk would be that one may think  he is a poet who describes nature and in that he is diminishing the estimation of Wordsworth because poetry does not describe but create. Many critics think that Wordsworth is a poet of nature because he says: "I'm a worshiper of nature. Accordingly, many readers misunderstand this statement. When critics say that Wordsworth is a poet of nature, they  mislead the readers of Wordsworth's poetry. Moreover, saying that he is the poet of nature is dangerous because we will think that his poetry is about nature, or it is the mirror of nature. If we consider that the definition is true then the statement is wrong. If poetry is about nature then it is a reflection of nature. However, to Wordsworth nature was the source of his inspiration, and he could not deny to it an existence at least as powerful as man's . He didn't go so far as other romantics in relegating reasons to an inferior position. He preferred to give a new dignity to the word and to insist that inspired insight itself rational.

William Wordsworth repeatedly described all good poetry as, at the moment of composition, "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Thus, he located the source of a poem not in the outer world, but in the individual poet, and specified that the essential materials of a poem were not external people and events, but the inner feelings of the author, or at any rate, external objects only after these have been transformed or irradiated by the authors feelings. But to Wordsworth, although the composition of poem originates from "emotion recollected in tranquility," and maybe preceded and followed by reflection, the immediate act of composition must be spontaneous-that is, arising from impulse, and free from all rules and the artful manipulation of means to foreseen ends-if the product is to be a genuine poem. In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth wrote that "I have at all times endeavored to look steadily at my subject"; and in a supplementary Essay he complained that from Dryden through Pope there is scarcely an image from external nature "from which it can be inferred that the eye of the poet had been steadily fixed on his object." Therefore, because of the prominence of landscape in this period, "Romantic poetry" has to the popular mind become almost synonymous with "nature poetry." Neither Romantic theory nor practice, however, justifies the opinion that the aim of this poetry was description for its own sake. Wordsworth in fact insisted that the ability to observe and describe objects accurately, although a necessary, is not at all a sufficient condition for poetry, "as its exercise supposes all the higher qualities of the mind to be passive, and in a state of subjection to external objects." And while most of the great Romantic lyrics-Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, The Daffodils, and Ode: Intimations of Immortality; Coleridge's Frost at Midnight, Kubla Khan, and Dejection; Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, Keats's Nightingale- begin with an aspect or change of aspect in the natural scene, this serves only as stimulus to the most characteristics human activity, that of thinking. Romantic poems are in fact meditative poems, in which the presented scene usually serves to raise an emotional problem or personal crisis whose development and resolution constitute the organizing principle of the poem and not to describe this natural scene. As Wordsworth said in his Prospectus to The Recluse, not nature, but "the Mind of Man" is "my haunt, and the main region of my song."