1792-1822

English Romantic Poet; died of drowning (possibly sunk by pirates) off the coast of Italy.

Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

• what is "dejection"? do we know why Shelley feels this way?

• note the tensions in the poem -- what or whom is the poet at odds with?

Ozymandias

• Sonnet

• About a statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II (also known Ramses the Great, and possibly the Pharaoh of the biblical Exodus)

• consider the layering of narrators and word meanings

• consider also the "message"

• Is this a political poem? a moral poem? a personal poem?

Gallery

The Inauguration of the Naples - Portici Railway, 1840, by Salvatore Fergola (1799-1874)

Ramses II (Ozymandias); found in Thebes, transferred to British Museum at time of Shelley's sonnet

Colossal of Ramses II (Ozymandias) in Memphis (3200 years old)

The Funeral of Shelley, Louis Edouard Fournier, 1889;  pictured in the centre are, from left, Trelawny, Hunt and Byron; Mary Shelley is kneeling behind the three male mourners.