Ozymandias Short Essay

Many people do not quite understand what romantic poetry is.”Ozymandias” is a classic example of romantic poetry because it contains quite a lot of the themes commonly found in romantic poems. As well as the themes, which are clearly seen on the surface, it has many of the ideas shared by the romantic poets.

The first, most clearly seen theme in the poem is that of man's arrogance. This is seen through what the poet writes about Ozymandias (Ramses the great), especially in the line:

“Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair.” He clearly believes he has done something amazing. Which he probably has, the problem is that he knows it. In the line: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,” we see that he is arrogant an believes he is the greatest man/king ever.. Romantic poets liked including this theme in their poems because it was a certain flaw in mankind which disgusted them.

Another theme in the poem is the inevitability of death. We see this in the part of the poem which reads:

“ “Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair “ Nothing beside remains.” This shows the romantics' opinion on mans lust for immortality. The idea here is that all things., no matter how great, will disappear/die.

These are the main themes and ideas in “Ozymandias” which are all very common in romantic poetry. There are more ideas which can be found out with some real thinking and reading, but its these surface themes which make “Ozymandias” a classic example of romantic poetry.

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