Ozymandias

"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert..." -"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

     This poem uses some common devices found in previous poems. I first focused in on the imagery which it provides. He talks about the "shattered visage" and "cold command" to give life to an inanimate object. In this way the sculpture is personified throughout the entire poem. A line that confused me was the one that stated, "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;" I feel as though the mocking hand could be the people who eventually led to the great king's downfall. Obviously they would be mocking if he had raised himself to the level in which the poem indicated he did. The heart is a bit more puzzling. The excerpt is referring to the passions which the sculptor recreated in the sculpture. When I think of vaingloriousness, I usually associate it with the mind. It is the mind that created the inflated ego. I suppose the heart symbolism indicates he usually acted on pure emotion rather than reason. The quote was another detail I believe the author included on purpose. He describes a "trunkless," or torso-less, sculpture with only the legs and head remaining. I think it is interesting that the thing that caused his ultimate demise, his head or ego, is still there and his legs to stand on are still there. The body is missing because his enemies took the body- they killed the man by stopping his vital organs in his body. The rest remains as a reminder of the inevitability of collapse of a passion-fed regime.