Ozymandias and Aristotle

The present poem, “Ozymandias” by P. B. Shelly can be best read under the light of Aristotle’s theory of imitation and imaginative representation .As Aristotle defines language as one of the three different aspects of imitation; the language of the poem “Ozymandias” by P. B. Shelly is extremely poetic and beautiful. The poem has made a perfect use of poetic language. ‘I’ in the poem is the speaker or the poet himself. The poet talks of about the King Ozymandias and the destruction and the fall of his empire. The poet brings in a traveler; who symbolizes historian to speak about the King and hid devastated statue that lies broken in the vast desert and his once so huge empire (Shelly, 1999). By assigning the mouth piece to the traveler from an ‘antique land’, he tries to bring in the authenticity to the poem. Perhaps, we would have thought this poem to be a mere narration, had the poet not brought the traveler from the distant land to speak of the king and his broken statue. By doing this, the poet tries to be more realistic and accountable.

The poet uses irony, a poetic device to mock at the King’s ego, arrogance and cruelty. The poetic expression; ‘two vast and trunk less legs of stone stand in the desert’ hint towards the destruction of the King and his empire the trunk less legs is an irony to the King’s once great empire. The so powerful and influential King has been limited to a broken statue in a vast desert. The statue is a metaphor for pride. The broken statue symbolizes the lost pride, honor and dignity of the king. The poet uses very vivid and strong expression to enhance the understanding of the poem. The poet uses ironic mode of imitation in the poem. It is filled with ironic overtones.

As the third aspect of imitation; poet uses human actions as the object of imitation. As opined by Aristotle, the objects of imitation are human actions presented by agents either good or bad. Here the poet presents the cruel, arrogant,...