Greatness and actual greatness Essay Example for Free

Greatness and actual greatness assayIn Ozymandias, Shelley uses great poetic irony to underline the ridiculousness of human pride in the fountain of Time. He shows that human glory is ephemeral and is cut back to nothing by the sheer passage of time, and juxtaposes the earthborn with the immortal. This juxtaposition serves to represent the contrast between the aspiration of greatness and actual greatness. He also serves to set off the belief that human greatness can survive through art and ideas, and not through hubris or pride. Thus, Ozymandiass fr proclaim and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command survive only because the sculptor was able to render them through his art.In fact, they are a truer representation of his cruelty than he would likely have desired, as this sculptor would also have been a part of the populace that Ozymandias ruled over. secern hugely with the absence and dying of mighty Ozymandias is that sculptors art, which lives on centuries after his own death its sculptor well those passions read, which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things. In the face of nature, art and time, Shelley shows that human hubris is reduced to nothing.Also, the inscription by Ozymandias that urges the onlookers to Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair in the end mocks the kings own hubris as all there is left to see is decay and vast stretches of the lone and level smooth. The way the passage of time has been presented also makes the irony greater antique land speaking from the advantage point of history Ozymandiass pride seems even more ridiculous in the face of his rack up eventual destruction, which was inevitable. Neither his property nor this self proclaimed king of kings himself can conquer the ravages of Time.