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Ozymandias
The Romantic poets brought in a vivid new era of poetry. Their work was characterised by flowing and colourful language, with fresh ideas and expression. Romantic poetry was often about nature, which featured strongly in the poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The Romantics praised imagination as a way of understanding things. They felt that using reason and logic alone was not enough. The specific use of the term 'Romantic poetry varies' but the most common definition is a movement in poetry seeking to avoid strict from and use the emotions as much as possible. The Romantic poets often used ancient tales and folk stories as inspiration for their poetry.
While most of the great poets of the 18th Century were highly respected members of society, and like most of the rest of society were mildly conservative, the Romantic poets were seen as a little strange. The poets themselves were either colourful and extrovert characters or they were strange and reclusive people. They also travelled a lot and wrote much of their poetry abroad.
The first poet to write in the "Romantic" way was William Blake, who was also an artist and engraver. He was followed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Each one used a direct and free flowing approach to writing and to poetry; and each had their own distinctive style. Robert Burns, for example, used everyday Scots English – the same language spoken by the uneducated farm labourers and owners of small farms that he lived among (Burns was himself a farmer). He used this simple language to write wonderfully musical poetry that spoke simply yet delicately of everyday emotions and situation.
The Romantic poets wrote about a range of emotions, from happiness to despair, that everyone feels at some stage. John Keats for example wrote of his unhappiness with city life. He was not a rich man and he lived in dirty, squalid conditions in London, where he contracted a disease of the lungs (he died at the age of 25). On the other hand the Romantics also wrote of their great joy at simply spending time with friends, or walking in the spectacular countryside of rural Britain.
One thing they all wrote about was the importance of the individual's emotions and experiences of the world. They placed great importance on each person's happiness, and wrote about themselves and their friends rather then the powerful and important people in society.
In the poem that follows, Shelley writes about the legacy of the ancient world, but he does not emphasise the power and grandeur of the powerful and important people of the time. Throughout history, kings and emperors have built monuments to commemorate their victories and achievements and to leave a reminder of their greatness to later generations. In the following poem, Shelly examines this phenomenon.
I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king kings:
Look upon my work, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
A paraphrase:
I met a traveler from an ancient place who said:
Two huge stone legs (without a body) stand in the
desert …
Lying near them, half covered by the sand,
is an enormous, broken face.
It has an expression of hatred.
The sculptor understood such emotions
and carved them into lifeless stone. He made fun
Of those feelings, and the king who left them:
On the base, the sculptor wrote these words:
"My name is Ozymandias, the greatest king:
You other kings, look at my monument and despair!"
Northing else is left.
Around that enormous ruin, the endless and
Empty desert stretches far into the distance.
_________________ لـم يـعــد يـاســمـيـن الـشـــام يـكـفـــــــي...
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