Ozymandias 200

bodleianlibs:

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias was first published in the 11 January 1818 edition of The Examiner – 200 years ago today.

Ozymandias is the Greek name for Ramses II, who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC. He was a military conqueror and a great builder, but Shelley’s sonnet describes how the achievements of even the mightiest tyrants are obliterated by time.

Ironically, the imagery in Shelley’s poem is very much still part of the cultural conversation, two centuries after first publication. For one recent example, it seemed like Blade Runner 2049 had images deliberately designed to evoke Shelley’s ideas.

This manuscript draft of the sonnet is kept in the Bodleian Libraries’ collection with the shelfmark MS. Shelley e. 4

You can read more about Ozymandias, and the other work of Shelley, on our Shelley’s Ghost website, originally built to support our 2010-11 exhibition.