In developing a penetrating central theme, Percy Shelley uses two powerful literary tools, imagery and irony, to shock readers with a startling epiphany. The images, for example, guide the audience to what is really emphasized in the poem: literary art as opposed to physical, plastic art. It also serves to characterize a key figure in the poem, Ozymandias, who is attributed cold, arrogant, and pretentious qualities. The speaker juxtaposes the words engraved on the pedestal with the image of crumbling monuments and the bare, endless sands that surround it. When these two vivid descriptions contrast, the visual imagery, through this juxtaposition, actually reinforces the situational irony. Indeed, situational irony dominates and governs the reader's very impression of the former pharaoh at the poem's conclusion; worn and disintegrated, the Ozymandias monument portrays an image of ruin and insignificance; while the poem itself portrays an image that, having stood the test of time, has successfully attempted what Ozymandias himself desired: eternal fame and a lasting legacy. Using imagery and irony, Shelley conveys the idea that poetic verse, linguistic expressions, and literary legacies outlast those of monumental and architectural form. Interestingly, Shelley uses the phrase “ancient land” (1) to begin; the diction in this case highlights the setting and our perspective of the time, since antiquity denotes belonging to the past and not being modern. The style in which the poem is rendered resembles the telling of a folktale as the story is told to us through a dark traveler and the reader is naturally drawn to the mysticism and mystery. However, in this way, Shelley pushes the audie away… halfway through the paper… initially. So the remaining wreckage has barely survived the sands of time. In this way, then, the reader perceives that a legacy through a mere monument is a fading legacy. So what's left of Ozymandias? The poem itself - and furthermore, the poem actually offends the very heart of the former king's desired legacy. Indeed, we see how easily the Pharaoh, for whom monuments were once built and who once ruled a great empire, is easily thwarted in the reader's mind by linguistic expressions, by delicate and subtle phrases, and by literary persuasion. Shelley's work has endured over the years reminding many of Ozymandias. On the other hand, we also see that the staying power of physical art, monumental projects, and sculptures as a means of inheritance is less than that of the mighty and powerful literary weapons Shelley wields from his arsenal of ink and parchment..
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