In the poem, the statue of Ozymandias, the king of kings, lies decaying in a distant desert. Only the pedestal, two upright legs and a face, remains of his statue; the rest is shattered and buried under lone and level sands. Netiher his mighty power as a king nor his statue, his legacy, could withstand the passage of merciless time. This poem reminds me of the 76-77th stanzas of Hávámál, a collection of Old Norse poems about philosophy of life. However, these stanzas and Ozymandias are more like two sides of the same coin, they complete each other. They both give the message of "memento mori" (remember you are a mortal), and speak about leaving a legacy. Ozymandias does this by the statue of Ozymandias, the king of kings while 76-77th stanzas of Hávámál give this message through the experiences of common man; however, this time the speaker is Odin - the king of gods. The message, along with memento mori, is that immortality is only achieved through a legacy: through the tales of the one who lived and died; through the reputation they leave behind. Man is the legacy he leaves behind. Nothing more, nothing less. Although Hávámál presents legacies as more heroic, personally, I always thought about legacies similar to that of Ozymandias. Even the legacy, the statue, of King Ozymandias lies broken into pieces in a distant desert; forgotten and covered with sand. No matter how mighty and powerful you are, no matter what your title is, no matter how powerful your legacy is, time and death will erase everything. In the end, good or bad, nothing matters. Everything is doomed to be swallowed by the sands of time.

OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley · Hoopoe Books · 199934 okunma

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