Friday, June 12, 2009

What is the narrator's point of view toward Ozymandias?

Percy Bysshe Shelly's "Ozmandias" is an example of the narrator as a first person observer, an active voice in the poem, who nonetheless does not directly inject his personal opinion into the poem. The narrator is present in the poem, yet remains observational, creating the necessary distance required to allow the reader to judge for him or herself what is occurring within the poem. 


The reader is presented with an ancient statue sitting in desert sands.              


"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone                                                      Stand in the desert."


The statue is obviously in disarray, ravaged by time.  It is the statue of a once great king, now strew across a desolate landscape.


"And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings.
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains."


The narrator's point of view is the point of view of a dispassionate observer, which makes the impact of the poem so much the greater. The narrator makes no comment on Ozmandias, and merely allows the facts presented within the poem to powerfully speak for themselves.

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