Shelley is referring here to the vast expanses of desert that surround Ozymandias's crumbling wreck of a statue. The desert is boundless in that, as far as the eye can see, it never ends. Whichever way you look, in whatever direction, all you can see is desert, desert, and even more desert. The desert is bare in that there are no natural features to be seen: no trees, no rocks, no plants or animals.
What Shelley is doing in these lines is emphasizing the arrogance of this long dead Pharaoh. He assumed that this statue would stand forever, a living embodiment of a great man and his earthly achievements. But the statue is no more. It has long since crumbled into the sand. Nature, in the form of the bare, boundless desert, has asserted its superiority over man, reclaiming the land that was once occupied by this statue.
Like the good Romantic he is, Shelley believes that man is a part of nature, and as such should not stand apart from it. He should recognize that he is intimately at one with every living thing, held together with rocks and trees, mountains, plants, and animals in a vast, all-encompassing unity. Ozymandias failed to realize this; he arrogantly asserted himself over nature and the rest of humankind. And yet now he's nothing more than a forgotten Pharaoh with a crumbling statue.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
What is the meaning of "boundless and bare" in "Ozymandias"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
It seems most likely you are asking about Michael Halliday's theories of language. He argues children have seven main functions they use...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
-
One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel...
No comments:
Post a Comment