His pamphlets reflect the influence of writers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Paine. After expulsion from Oxford, Shelley wrote little and then eloped with sixteen-year-old Harriet Westbrook in August 1811.Įncouraged to pursue writing, Shelley became focused on political and religious subjects. In 1811, the publication of The Necessity of Atheism destroyed his family relationships. While studying at Oxford (a one-year stint), Shelley continued to pursue publication. In 1810, Shelley entered University College in Oxford. His first poetry was published in 1810, as was his first Gothic novel, Zastrozzi. Not surprisingly, love and writing became intertwined in his literary style. During his teenage years, Shelley found that he was very interested in romance. Still, he gained a love for, and education in, sciences such as astronomy and chemistry.Īt the age of twelve, Shelley entered Eton College, an elite boys school whose students were drawn from the British aristocracy. Shelley's halcyon days at the family estate did not prepare him for the bullying by other boys at Syon House Academy, in which he enrolled in 1802. He was one of six children, of whom he was the eldest brother. Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, to Sir Timothy and Elizabeth Shelley in Sussex, England. Today, Shelley's "Ozymandias" is one of his most famous poems. Shelley's sonnet was published first, followed by Smith's submission the next month. They agreed to write their sonnets about Ozymandias and submit them (with pen names) for publication. Shelley and Smith agreed to write separate poems inspired by a passage they read by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus. Their individual poems, and submit them to some sort of judging, often publication. It was not uncommon for poets at this time to challenge each other to contests in which the two poets would select a topic or title, write Among these was a poet and novelist named Horace Smith, whom Shelley admired for his ability to write and effectively manage his money. Shelley kept company with an impressive array of writers, poets, and philosophers in his day. This poem is widely anthologized, and is featured in the Norton Critical Edition (2nd edition) of Shelley's work titled Shelley's Poetry and Prose (2002). Ultimately, the poem shows that political leadership is fleeting and forgotten, no matter how hard a ruler may try to preserve his own greatness. But Shelley was also a political writer, and "Ozymandias" provides insight into the poet's views on power, fame, and political legacy. "Ozymandias" describes an unusual subject matter for Shelley, who usually wrote about Romantic subjects such as love, nature, heightened emotion, and hope. Time and the elements have reduced the great statue to a pile of rubble.
Once a great symbol of power and strength, the statue has become a metaphor for the ultimate powerlessness of man. In the poem, the narrator relates what someone else described to him about pieces of a broken statue lying in a desert.
It first appeared in book form in Shelley's Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue with Other Poems (1819). Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote "Ozymandias" in 1817, and it was first published in the Examiner in 1818.
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