Pictures and designs from Egyptian antiquity became immensely popular, so much so that eventually a pyramid ended up on the U.S. This scheme failed, but the French opened the land of Egypt up to western eyes for the first time since the fall of Rome. In an effort to outmaneuver the British in 1799, Napoleon invaded Egypt with plans to cut off Britain from India. It was in this extended conflict that Egyptology was born as a science. He died in 1822 at the age of 30 when his boat was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Italy.Īt the time of the poem’s composition, Britain had finally finished the Napoleonic wars. After his return to England, Harriet committed suicide, and shortly thereafter Shelley and Mary were married. He did not, however, get rid of his first wife. The days were filled with boating, discussing poetry and séances in the evening. Three years later he met and fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft, the daughter of two of his friends, and the later author of “Frankenstein.” These two absconded to Lake Geneva in Switzerland with a new friend and another poet, Lord Byron.
Shortly thereafter he eloped to Scotland with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook. After publishing a tract entitled “The Necessity of Atheism,” however, he was thrown out. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”Īs a young man, Shelley attended Eton College and then entered into Oxford University. I met a traveller 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 of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Whatever one’s opinions on these philosophies might be, he remains one of the most loved English poets.
I AM OZYMANDIAS KING OF KINGS FREE
(Courtesy Photo)īorn into the upper classes, Shelley broke with his father and contemporaries by advocating a world view of free love, atheism, socialism and occasional dabbles with the occult. Gregory Elder, a Redlands resident, is a professor of history and humanities at Moreno Valley College and a Roman Catholic priest. For some quirky reason, one of my favorite poems of all time has been “Ozymandias” by the eccentric English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who lived from 1792-1822.
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